To the Editor:

Warwick is now facing a major fiscal crisis. A city-hired financial consultant warned that the city was “at the breaking point” 10 years ago. Most of our past and present elected leaders ignored the problem, choosing to kick the can down the road.

Four years ago, a consultant hired by the School Department described the Warwick school budget as “heading for a train wreck” and warned of state intervention if staffing and salary reductions were not implemented.

Former Superintendent Philip Thornton issued a stark warning and had plans to reduce staffing. In the 2022 school budget address it stated that “the district MUST arrest its enrollment decline and restructure its expenses to align with the reduced enrollment. Failure to do so will result in state intervention.” The narrative continued, “A deficit budget is inevitable in FY2022 unless the staffing reductions to align the professional staff to the enrollment decline are made.”

Thornton’s recommendations were ignored by the School Committee, and he was subsequently forced out of his job as superintendent.

Reports now indicate that the School Department is facing a $9-million budget deficit attributed to salary overspending in the fiscal 2025 school budget. It appears that the budget cannot be balanced by simply cutting non-salary line items. Most likely, millions more will be needed from the city. Where will this money come from? Will city leaders dip into the surplus, or could a supplemental tax increase be imposed? Mayor Picozzi stated in a Channel 12 interview that a tax increase is a possibility.

Will Warwick teachers to be asked to share in the burden to fix this problem? To put the School Department’s unprecedented deficit in prospective, it would take a supplemental maximum tax increase to raise the $9 million needed to balance only the 2025 schools fiscal year budget.

 The Warwick School Committee made a serious mistake last year when they outsourced the contract negotiation with the Warwick Teacher Union. Instead of taking the challenge head-on, they hired a labor friendly government bureaucrat whose main goal was to “keep labor peace” and who agreed to approximately $10 million in additional salary and benefit increases over the next three years.

 Will the Warwick School Committee now request that WTU President Darlene Netcoh reopen contract negotiations and propose major concessions to balance the budget? Don’t hold your breath!

Ms. Netcoh, whenever she comments before the School Committee or City Council meetings, always casts herself as a lifelong resident and Warwick taxpayer. She now needs to put on her Warwick taxpayer hat and be part of the solution by reopening contract talks and accepting millions in teacher salary reductions.

With taxpayers soon to be on the hook for over $400 million in borrowing costs associated with building two new high schools, $68 million in new funding for the OPEB trust fund (free lifetime health care for city workers) and record city spending that will include new contacts with police and municipal employees that will cost millions, taxpayers, especially seniors on a fixed income, will be hard pressed to remain in the city with the massive tax increases needed to support this unsustainable spending.

Warwick taxpayers need answers now. How could such a massive deficit of $6 million in the schools’ fiscal 2024 salary line item and $9 million in the current fiscal 2025 salary budget develop over the last six months with no one being aware of it until recently?

Mayor Picozzi and the new Warwick City Council need to hold the School Department accountable in uncovering what happened. Once named, the new council finance chairman needs to schedule emergency School Department budget hearings monthly, requiring the superintendent, school finance director, city finance director and the School Committee to attend a public meeting where the taxpayers can ask them questions with no time restrictions.

My Facebook page, “Warwick Taxpayers’ Spin” has been predicting a fiscal crisis in Warwick for years. The crisis is now here and the consequences for Warwick taxpayers will be devastating. Please join my page if you want to learn more about the fiscal crisis that has arrived in Warwick.

Robert Cushman

Robert Cushman is a former Warwick City Councilman and School Committee chairman.