News Article on Budget

Following is an article from today's KCT on the budget. The FTM is tomorrow night; if you want a zero tax increase suggest you attend tomorrow nigght's meeting at the high school GYMNASIUM (not the auditorium).

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Officials dispel budget ‘rumors’

Sunday, 28 June 2009
HANNAH PIECUCHhclarkin@ricentral.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it COVENTRY — A zero percent increase in taxes will be put before the voters of Coventry at the Financial Town Meeting on Tuesday, June 30, says Council Vice-President Laura Flanagan.“There is no other community in Rhode Island whose council has provided a 0 percent increase in their budget,” she said. “And this isn’t a revaluation year, so that means that taxpayers won’t see a cent difference on their tax bill.”In spite of the work that she, Council President Raymond Spear and the Coventry Finance Director Warren West have put into constructing a budget that gives tax relief, Flanagan feels that the budget has been misrepresented through rumors and incorrect statements, she said.

Rumors about the impact of the budget have been spread in a disingenuous manner, Flanagan said — that layoffs will topple town departments, that the council has forced the closing of Oak Haven Elementary School, is demanding huge fees to be paid by the sports league and to attend town summer camps, is depriving charities of operational expenses in the town and is spending thousands of unnecessary dollars on their recently contracted law firm Edwards Angell Palmer and Dodge. Most of these rumors do not have a factual basis, Flanagan and Spear said. The total budget comes in at $87,021,668, representing a 6.6 percent reduction in the operating costs, a more-than halved capital improvement budget and a level-funded school budget, according to figures provide by West.This budget is nearly $2 million less than the fiscal year 2009 budget, according to numbers provided by West, but it will not cripple town departments, Flanagan and Spear said. “I trust Warren [West],” Flanagan said. “I think he knows what he’s doing and knows this town enough that he would tell us if these cuts we’re making would prevent the town from operating.”

The department of public works will lose three employees, West said, but none of these positions are lost through layoffs. Over the course of the year two DPW employees passed away — one refuse courier and one roads and bridges driver — West said. One mechanic from vehicle maintenance left his position for medical reasons. These positions will not be filled, but the department has already been operating with them empty this fiscal year.The only layoffs that will occur in the municipal budget are the elimination of one part-time position in the tax collector’s office, that only cost the town $2,000 a year and the elimination of one part time position in the town clerk’s office for an employee who will keep their position in another town department, West said.

The hiring freeze leaves the town manager’s office down one clerk and the tax assessor’s office down one clerk because of layoffs, West continued. At the police department, the budget removes funding for an officer who was called up for the National Guard, Flanagan said — that officer will receive pay through the National Guard so it is unnecessary to budget for him — and two officers who would have been trained to replace a retirement and the officer called up for the National Guard will remain in their current position. In short, there will be three open positions at the police department.

The discussion surrounding the closing of Oak Haven has placed the blame for the decision on the town council. This is not fair, said Spear, speaking as a former superintendent and the chairman of the school committee. “Closing Oak Haven School has been on the docket for three years in a row,” he said. “The town council did not put it there, the school committee put it there.”Oak Haven is only an issue because it has been made an issue, Spear continued. The biggest impact is going to be in the Oak Haven neighborhood, but other areas will lose or gain 20 to 40 students.The way that Superintendent Kenneth DiPietro has presented it, Spear said, “you’d think that every kid in the town was getting turned upside down.”Handling the school closure this way is “very unprofessional on the part of the superintendent,” Spear said. “It’s been made a political issue when it doesn’t have to be a political issue. If you can educate kids well in five schools instead of six and save money, then you can do it.”

Many residents may forget, Spear added, that when he was superintendent in the 1980s, the town leadership found it expedient to close the Tiogue Elementary School for a time. “I don’t remember it being a great big mess back then.” The school department leadership, the school committee and the parents of elementary school students in the district need to stay calm, Spear said, and if they do, their children will get through the initial change and be just fine. The council does not decide to close a school or keep a school open, emphasized Flanagan, the school committee does. The school committee has had since January to reconcile the fact that they are being level-funded by the town council, she added.

Many complaints have circulated regarding cuts to the Parks and Recreation Department budget, Flanagan said. Ironically, this department is the only one where the department head was given a set budget and allowed to determine his own cuts. Recreation Director Guy Lefebvre was given a set amount, she said, “we told him that he could increase his revenues by increasing the fees to the summer camp — which was only $12 a week. I don’t know of anywhere in this state that you could send your kids to summer camp for $12 a week. It was $100 a week at the YMCA ten years ago. We told him that we need to get our fees to a place where they’re covering our costs so we strongly encouraged him to raise fees.”For families who cannot afford the increase, Flanagan added, there is assistance available through the Department of Human Services and they are welcome to apply for aid through the Waterman/Fiske Assistance Program.

The increase in fees to play on sports teams, such as the Ram’s Football team, was also Lefebvre’s own decision, Flanagan said. Now, instead of the town donating the money to pay for lights and field use, players will have to pay themselves.“What this amounts to is that every child pays $5 more — for the season,” Flanagan said. “It’s important to note that the way we are changing things makes our programs more user-oriented,” Flanagan said. “Rather than put the burden of paying for summer camp or recreation leagues on all the taxpayers in this town, we’re putting it on the people who want to use them.“We don’t think any of the user fees are exorbitant,” she added. “If I don’t see an increase in my taxes, I can put out $5 for my kid to play football or pay $25 a week this summer to send them to summer camp.”

Cutting out the charitable donations line-item has generated a lot of complaints, Flanagan said. Veterans programs, the Greene Library, the Good Samaritans and other organizations will not receive any money from the town this year.Charitable donations amounted to $90,775 in last year’s budget, West said and were proposed to amount to $95,775 in the town manager’s budget for this year. The council has zeroed out that amount. This does not mean that those charities will not be supported in the future, Flanagan said, “but in a year when we’re asking municipal employees to take no pay raises and asking them to increase their health-insurance contributions — it seems like a slap in the face to turn around and donate nearly $100,000 to charities.”When it came to looking at all the charities that the town has supported, Flanagan said, the council did not want to pick and choose which to keep and which to discontinue. They simply decided, “this year we’re not going to do it.”

Employing Law Firm Edwards, Angel, Palmer and Dodge has received a lot of public criticism when residents saw the amount that was budgeted, Flanagan said. This year’s legal budget is listed in one line item, West said, and it includes $175,000 for legal services, $200,000 budgeted for ongoing litigation, based on a recommendation from the firm, and $75,000 to cover legal expenses for the school department. The whole number this year is $449,000 for all legal items, West said. In prior years there was a line-item for legal services that was considerably smaller, but other legal expenses were worked into other sections of the budget and nothing was budgeted for ongoing litigation. When all these fees were compiled in one place, the council in Fiscal Year 2008 had budgeted $374,000 for legal services, West said.

Many of the rumors that Flanagan and Spear addressed were published in the Reminder this week, a copy of which was provided by Flanagan. The advertisement was paid for by Bruce Desrosiers acting as Treasurer of “Concerned Citizens for Coventry,” according to the ad. Desrosiers could not be reached for comment.Supporting the budget this fiscal year are Flanagan and Spear and Councilman Glenford Shibley. Both Councilman Frank Hyde and Councilman Kenneth Cloutier voted against the budget when it came before the council.

Although the budget passed the town council 3-2, Flanagan said, it’s not a done deal. Taxpayers in Coventry do have the power to add or subtract items from the budget or to defeat the budget altogether.People who are excited that there is no tax increase in the budget should not be thanking her now, Flanagan said. “It’s not a done deal. Don’t thank me, come out to the Financial Town Meeting and make it happen.”Now is the time to begin cutting taxes so that Coventry can cease being one of the highest-taxed communities in Rhode Island, Spear said. In order to do so, the town must start somewhere and “now is the time and now is the place to start.”Copies of the town council’s recommended budget are available on the Coventry town Web site: http://town.coventry.ri.us.

Residents can weigh in on the budget by voting at the Financial Town Meeting this Tuesday, June 30 at 7 p.m. at the high school auditorium.