Twenty-Nine of Rhode Island’s Cities and Towns Sign on to Governor’s Plan to Save Municipalities

Read the Governor’s Recent Providence Journal Op-Ed Urging Rhode Islanders to Support Municipal Reform and Relief:

As I stood in Pawtucket City Hall recently with municipal leaders from across Rhode Island, I couldn’t imagine a more fitting place to announce a legislative package that would empower local officials to help get their communities back on sound financial footing. Pawtucket, the city that launched the American Industrial Revolution, is symbolic of so many of our state’s communities — a once-thriving leader of industry that in recent years has endured hard times.

 A glance at the morning headlines, which recently included Woonsocket’s school-budget crisis, Providence’s downgraded bond rating and the ongoing issues in Central Falls, serves as a dire warning that municipal reform and relief can wait no more. We can no longer let our cities and towns run the risk of falling into bankruptcy, one by one.

 Consider that in Central Falls, residents have lost their independence, seen their services cut and suffered another property-tax increase. They have watched as their friends, neighbors and family members have had their pensions marginalized — citizens such as the Central Falls police officer who retired as a lieutenant with a $28,968 annual pension. Under the new rules imposed by receivership, this modest pension has been cut to a barely livable $13,035.

 My package of fundamental reforms seeks to fix the structural problems that threaten our cities and towns and hold hostage the very future of our state. But more than anything else, this legislation would keep the power to restructure municipal governments exactly where it belongs — with the mayors, town and city managers and administrators, and municipal council members who are so deeply invested in their communities and devoted to the well-being of the people who live there.

Years of drastic reductions in state aid — including $220 million in cuts between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2011 — have fallen disproportionately on the communities that could least afford them — in particular Providence, Pawtucket, West Warwick, Woonsocket and Central Falls. The poorest communities got hit the hardest. This was wrong. Unfortunately, these municipalities were forced to raise property taxes, which stifle economic growth. This is untenable, and Central Falls is proof.

Municipal executives — particularly Woonsocket Mayor Leo Fontaine, Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and interim West Warwick Town Manager Malcolm Moore — all leading “highly distressed” communities — have worked tirelessly and made tremendous efforts to achieve savings and avoid fiscal collapse in their communities. They have renegotiated contracts, laid off staff and closed public facilities. They have ended valuable community programs and consolidated government operations.

  

Now, they need our help to go further — and our continued faith in their ability to manage their communities effectively.

My fiscal 2013 budget proposal includes nearly $40 million in additional aid to help our cities and towns achieve fiscal stability. Additionally, my newly introduced legislative package contains tools that would let leaders of our most distressed communities continue the reforms they have already undertaken.

These tools include, among others, the power to suspend unsustainable pension benefits and cost-of-living adjustments, the ability to bring municipal benefits in line with those granted by the state, the power to provide reduced disability benefits for those who can perform other jobs, reforming binding arbitration and increasing oversight for school-committee budgeting. They would also provide relief from some of the costliest mandates that our highly distressed municipalities can simply no longer afford. The state, while offering its assistance, would also ensure that there is accountability at the local level.

The hardships of each community affect everyone in the state, regardless of where we live. We are all affected when bond downgrades require municipalities to get state aid just to borrow money. We are all affected when existing businesses won’t expand or hire and new businesses won’t move to Rhode Island because of uncertainty about our fiscal future and fear of more bankruptcies.

We must empower our municipal officials to make the hard but necessary decisions. Now is the time for Rhode Island to take control of the state of its cities and towns — and that control belongs in the hands of our municipal leaders.

The following town officials and administrators have expressed their support for Governor Chafee’s proposed municipal package in co-signing the Governor’s Op-Ed:

Diane Mederos, Bristol Town Administrator

Michael C. Wood, Burrillville Town Manager

William Dilibero, Charlestown Town Administrator

Thomas Hoover, Coventry Town Manager

The Honorable Allan W. Fung, Mayor of Cranston

The Honorable Daniel J. McKee, Mayor of Cumberland

William Sequino, Jr., East Greenwich Town Manager

Bruce Rogers, Mayor of East Providence

Gordon E. Rogers, Foster Council President

William McGarry, Hopkinton Town Manager

Bruce Keiser, Jamestown Town Administrator

The Honorable Joseph M. Polisena, Mayor of Johnston

T. Joseph Almond, Lincoln Town Administrator

Shawn Brown, Middletown Town Administrator

Nancy O. Dodge, New Shoreham Town Manager

Jane Howington, Newport City Manager

Michael Embury, North Kingstown Town Manager

The Honorable Charles Lombardi, Mayor of North Providence

Paulette D. Hamilton, North Smithfield Town Administrator

The Honorable Donald R. Grebien, Mayor of Pawtucket

The Honorable Angel Taveras, Mayor of Providence

Steven Sette, Richmond Town Administrator

Charles A. Collins, Jr., Scituate Council President

Dennis Finlay, Smithfield Town Manager

James Goncalo, Tiverton Town Administrator

The Honorable Scott Avedisian, Mayor of Warwick

Malcolm A. Moore, Interim West Warwick Town Manager

Steven T. Hartford, Esq., Westerly Town Manager

Leo Fontaine, Mayor of Woonsocket