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Bob Cushman is entitled to present his analysis to the City Council during the public comment period(& make copies available to the Council). As with most municipal budgets, wages/health care costs/pension costs for both current employees & retirees are the largest cost of a budget. As far as Warwick being "not in all that bad shape", a red flag exists in that the current fiscal year budget required a draw down on reserves to balance it. It's not only the pensions, the Warwick School system/Warwick School Committee & the other municipal departments haven't been able to make the difficult decisions on closing schools when the City has declining enrollment & expects that decline to continue & holding the line on other municipal spending(schools are level funded but dept. heads need to be informed that there will be no new spending/funding). Warwick shouldn't be looking at building new schools when it doesn't fill the present ones. Fire code upgrades to schools/buildings that may be closed; that doesn't make sense. With a declining population & a limited commercial & residential tax base to obtain new/additional tax revenue from, Warwick needs to looking to get the most for it's tax dollars.

The Mayor, the City Council, & the School Committee need to communicate with one another to address their issues/problems: road repairs/legacy costs/school costs/other municipal service areas need to be viewed together & how they are interrelated; especially with the likelihood that the State of RI has its own budget issues & will likely hold down aid to municipalities in the near future.