May 21 promises to be “Super Saturday.”
That’s the day the City Council will hold a public hearing on the administration’s 2016-17 city budget starting at 9 a.m. and going for as long as …
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May 21 promises to be “Super Saturday.”
That’s the day the City Council will hold a public hearing on the administration’s 2016-17 city budget starting at 9 a.m. and going for as long as it takes. Well, maybe not quite that long.
City Council President Donna Travis remembers when the city budget hearing was completed on a Saturday, and she would like to see if it’s possible to bring the practice back. The plan is to start the hearing with the school budget, break for lunch, and return in the afternoon and get as much done as possible. If additional time is needed, the council would continue the hearing on Monday and on into the week if necessary.
It could happen.
This budget hearing may go faster than many. For starters, the School Committee is expected to submit a level-funded request, eliminating what is usually a prolonged discussion over whether the city should fund a request for increased school funding.
And then there is the prospect of some relief to the taxpayer, as the city has worked through the bulk of $16.4 million in abatements resulting primarily from contested commercial valuations over the past several years. The tax write-offs, frequently accounted for by adjusting tax payments going forward, resulted from declining values of the Great Recession and tax disputes as far back as 2006.
One of the largest of those abatements was $1,075,000 that was paid last year to Leviton Manufacturing. The company no longer has property in the city. Resolving disputes and clearing the backlog of abatements has been an objective of City Tax Assessor Christopher Celeste.
For City Finance Director Ernest Zmyslinski, abatements put the city in the position of having to raise taxes simply to sustain operations going into the next fiscal year.
“We’re not starting off with major abatements in front of us, and that’s a big plus,” he said.
A factor, too, is the citywide revaluation that is nearing finalization. Overall, residential property values have increased by 7 percent and commercial values by 3.5 percent. Zmyslinski predicts this will result in decreased tax rates, although that doesn’t necessarily translate into lower tax bills, as they will be based on higher valuations.
“Warwick expects a level of services to be maintained,” Zmyslinski said. He said the word to department directors is “to keep expenses as low as possible.”
Travis questions the impact of the revaluation, too.
“I think everyone is very concerned where we’re going with the reval and everything,” she said Monday.
So as to give the council and public sufficient time to research the budget before the hearing, Travis said she asked Mayor Scott Avedisian if the city could have it finalized by May 11. The intent, she explained, was to get the public hearing away from the Memorial Day weekend that is packed with activities and squeezes the process in order to get the budget approved and in place. The council needs to leave sufficient time for the mayor to act on the budget they approve and return and vote on any vetoes should he make them.
As for what he has seen of the school budget, Zmyslinski said Superintendent Philip Thornton is “certainly doing a great job” in adjusting the school budget to the district needs and the reorganization of the district in response to declining enrollment. Travis said she is comfortable with Thornton’s budget.
“I hear it’s going to be level funded,” she said. She has a reservation with his plan to replace the reading recovery program and wants to hear what he has to say. “Why would you get rid of a program that works?’ she asked.
She said she would like to see added personnel in the city finance department.
Zmyslinski didn’t get into the numbers, but he said the emphasis at this point is to focus on state and federal aid as well as revenues from fees and licenses for the upcoming fiscal year so as to project what will need to be raised through property taxes. The current budget is $294 million, with $221.9 million being generated through property taxes.
Zmyslinski is also focused on closing out the current fiscal year. Those projections are a part of the budget presentation and give the City Council a picture of whether department spending is adhering to the budget and whether budget requests are realistic going forward.
Fire department overtime, which has a history of exceeding budget, is likely to be questioned again. Zmyslinski said he is breaking out fire overtime from having to fill absences from that created by additional training. He pointed out that the department has received grants for specialized training and that those overtime costs should be distinguished rather than lumped together in department overtime.
“We should know what it costs to run the department,” he said.
Bruce Keiser, administrative assistant who has also been working on the budget, thought the single hearing day workable, although there’s no saying how long it might go. He thought a level-funded school budget would serve to diminish lengthy debate and that overall the budget doesn’t include programs or significant new initiatives of a controversial nature.
“It’s pretty much a maintenance of effort type of budget,” he said.
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Thecaptain
Jam the budget hearings into one day on a weekend when none of the taxpayers can attend. That way, the incompetent city council president and finance chair and the mayor and his department heads don't have to answer any questions. Questions for example: In line item 35-100 (sick pay) in the fire dept. budget, how is sick pay tracked and compiled against line item 35-116 (unsused sick time). Now there's a kabooki dance that I want to see the mayor and the chief performing publicly.
Friday, April 29, 2016 Report this
bendover
The mayor opens the meeting...."Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the 2016-17 budget hearing and presentation, we're broke, we shall seek chapter 9 protection, have a nice day." Good bye and good luck.
Friday, April 29, 2016 Report this
Bob_Cushman
John Howell, not one question directed at the Council President or the administration regarding input from the public, why? The council actually has rules that state that the monthly council meeting cannot go over a 5 hour time limit, past midnight precisely so that after 5 hours of meetings the level of attention and detail required to conduct business diminishes substantially.
John, Why not ask the question, how could potentially over 15 hours of budget hearings effect the ability of the city council to conduct proper over site and understand of the Mayor's spending plan?
The answer, there is no over site. The budget is rubber stamped by Travis, Wilkinson and the other minors in leadership on the council. The pontification and grand standing at these hearing is nauseating. Who needs to even have a hearing?
The city has had a $3 million structure deficit for the past years and the brilliance of the Council President Travis and Finance Chair Wilkinson didn't see it necessary to hold supplemental budget hearing to balance the budget. Yet, Travis, Wilkinson and Ladouceur actually had the gale to castigate the CFO of the school department for coming in with a fiscal year surplus.
So to recap, city over spends its budget, taps into the rainy day fund, creates a structural deficit, agrees to new contract for all city employees without seeing a fiscal note or the cost, breaks the record for most money spent ever and proclaims that as a prudent fiscal management of the city budget. Schools are level funded for past 7 years, spending at 2008 level, fiscal surplus projected, that is label as budget mismanagement by the so called budget geniuses on the city council.
Just have the Mayor decree the budget and forget about the waste of time know as the budget hearings.
Friday, April 29, 2016 Report this
WarwickWatch
Was informed today that's not happening . Yet another example of how some members of the City Council still
look for ways to bypass public input and transparency.
Monday, May 2, 2016 Report this