EDITORIAL

Dark days, indeed

Posted 6/20/19

In disassembling the financial crisis that has resulted in $7.75 million in cuts to the Warwick School Department, which has made school sports (among many other important items conducive to good education) a casualty, it is difficult to find any shred

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EDITORIAL

Dark days, indeed

Posted

In disassembling the financial crisis that has resulted in $7.75 million in cuts to the Warwick School Department, which has made school sports (among many other important items conducive to good education) a casualty, it is difficult to find any shred of positivity or hope among the turmoil.

We are continuously discouraged by the unapologetic stance taken by the Warwick City Council that the school department is somehow fudging numbers or hiding surpluses to the tune of a $7.75 million deficit. We find it hard to reconcile a belief that public educators and elected school committee members would purposefully run their schools into the ground.

As unhappy as it may make certain members of the city council, we simply are not buying the notion they have been presenting that the schools should have realized a huge monetary windfall because the student population has declined and schools have closed. Any savings that the schools realized would reasonably be negated due to rising costs in contractual salaries, benefits and increased state mandates, such as money to fund tuitions for students going out of district.

Salaries and contractual obligations, such as step increases and pension contributions, is a growing issue that is being grappled with statewide and, as the council certainly knows, it is happening within city departments as well as the cost to pay retired city workers outpaces the cost to pay workers currently on salary.

We could point the same line of questioning at the city. Despite regular tax increases and receiving nearly 100 percent of that new property tax revenue since 2010, to the tune of about $37 million, the city still relies on its rainy day funding to cover its budget and cannot afford to allocate any contributions towards its OPEB costs, which grow exponentially every year. Why is that? Is it only the schools that should be accused of financial mismanagement when money gets tight?

Council President Steven Merolla has said it is disingenuous to present one side of the story when it comes to school funding. However, as we see it, schools being flatlined in funding from the city is the side of the story that matters most. The fact that schools have survived 10 years with no real increase in funding is honestly quite incredible. It should be no surprise that, finally, this approach has caught up with the city. Band-aid budgetary measures are depleted, costs continue to increase and there is nowhere left to turn. As school committee member David Testa put it, the reckoning is here.

We would also ask Mr. Merolla to present both sides of the story when discussing the supposed $3.5 million in “surpluses” found by an accountant – hired by the council, mind you – during recent mediation discussions. These figures were ascertained utilizing problematic means and included erroneous assumptions, such as the notion that schools don’t buy textbooks at the end of the school year when, in fact, they do exactly that. Further, the same accounting firm that conducted this supposedly dead-on accurate assessment of school spending is the same that produced a five-year report that was supposedly so inaccurate, it didn’t even warrant being released or discussed when a draft was available prior to the city acting on municipal contracts that included significant salary raises.

Regardless, it is quite clear that the problems that have culminated in hundreds of students protesting – rightfully concerned about their futures and rightfully upset that they could have important programs and sports ripped from them due to forces beyond their control – are about more than disagreements over decimal points.

The crisis Warwick finds itself in is one of character. It is one of politics. It is one of stubbornness. It is the result of two sides that do not trust each other to be honest, and have subsequently dug their heels into their positions and equipped a suit of armor. That the council would take a no confidence vote in the school finance director Anthony Ferrucci reinforces this divide, and it does nothing to solve the problems at hand.

It is obvious to point out that our young citizens deserve better than this. Taxpayers deserve better than this. It seems the road we are on will lead to the first Caruolo Action in Warwick’s history, which may be necessary now to, once and for all, assess whose version of the facts is truly factual – the school side, the city side, or something in between. Maybe having everything aired out in the public arena and decided on by an impartial judge is exactly what needs to happen.

We applaud the students who have felt so inspired as to show up to municipal meetings and protest at City Hall. It is this kind of activism that is needed not just in times of crisis, but in the months leading up to the decisions that ultimately sparked said outrage. We hope that we can one day look back on these days as among the darkest chapters in Warwick’s recent history; chapters which eventually led to something less dismal.

Comments

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  • davebarry109

    Students don't pay taxes. Lay off some teachers and stop giving them 3% pay raises every year. The school committee cannot understand that teachers in Warwick are some of the best paid in the country but we have terrible results. People will not want to raise kids in our city if the school committee cannot get teachers to teach.

    If there are any misspellings in this letter it is because I am a Warwick public school graduate.

    Thursday, June 20, 2019 Report this

  • Former User

    If this current situation does result in a Caruolo action, the city will lose for precisely the reasons that the editorial explains -- the schools have been basically level-funded (the same city allotment year after year), and the city can not accuse the school department of fiscal mismanagement.

    (Not that Merolla and Solomon won't try, as noted in the editorial.)

    The city also can't argue that the city's tax base could not absorb higher taxes to pay for the schools -- they just raised taxes again this year after passing the maximum tax hike allowed by state law last year.

    One thing the editorial does not mention is that the council refused to pass a tax increase two years ago (the FY18 budget) that would have raised $7.1 million in revenue -- and instead spent part of the $24 million surplus (at the time) to cover the budget deficit they created.

    Trying to stall the 2019 audit and raiding the surplus to cover their irresponsible budget are further cases against the city, not for it.

    This is a self-inflicted 'crisis,' and if the mayor and city council think a Caruolo lawsuit will find anything different or result in anything other than a loss for the city, they are sorely mistaken.

    Friday, June 21, 2019 Report this

  • Reality

    Hillsgrove Hal

    You are at it again. Let me understand this... your boy ,Scotty, raises taxes every yr in office except one because the council didn't allow it and that's the reason Warwick is facing fiscal meltdown. Get Real.

    Warwick is in such financial straits because Scotty gave away the store to the unions for yrs. Prescription drug benefits,enhanced pension,limited employee healthcare co-pays etc.etc.

    Spare us the Scotty narrative that the council was controlled by the Democrats because everyone knows the majority of them were in his pocket.

    Hillsgrove Hal no matter you spin it...Avedisian is responsible for putting Warwick on the path to bankruptcy.

    Friday, June 21, 2019 Report this

  • Former User

    Get real, please explain how the council is not at least as much to blame as Avedisian.

    That is what I've been saying all along, and you are clearly not understanding it.

    Bring up history as much as you want, it's what Solomon and the council have done recently that will sink their chances if/when the school committee sues the city.

    Saturday, June 22, 2019 Report this

  • wwkvoter

    Finally, Hal admits Avedisian is at least as much to blame as the council. Debate works!

    Monday, June 24, 2019 Report this

  • wwkvoter

    Great editorial also!

    Monday, June 24, 2019 Report this

  • Former User

    wwkvoter, here's how debate actually works: Someone sets out a premise, and then supports it with fact.

    Here is my premise: I never said anything different than "they are all to blame."

    And here is evidence to support it...

    - A past comment of mine from June 17, where I say specifically that "they are all to blame."

    http://warwickonline.com/stories/solomon-school-sports-will-remain-in-place,143117

    - A link from June 6 where I state: "I know Avedisian negotiated the contracts; I know he ran the city day-to-day; and I know he proposed tax increases every year -- but the council's job was to review those contracts, oversee city operations, and change and approved those budgets."

    http://warwickonline.com/stories/council-passes-3228m-budget,142832

    - A link from March 26 where I state "the city council is at least as responsible as Avedisian for failing to do their jobs," agreeing with the Beacon editorial that said exactly the same thing.

    http://warwickonline.com/stories/no-shortage-of-blame-in-pension-reform-debacle,140937

    Making accusations against someone else without proof -- especially when the evidence disproves their accusations -- is not "debate."

    All Get Real showed was that s/he doesn't understand plain English, and instead just wants to distract people from the current office holders' mismanagement of the city.

    Monday, June 24, 2019 Report this

  • Bob_Cushman

    I think the Raven never left these blogs.

    The, wish I was the Taxpayers Mayor.

    Monday, June 24, 2019 Report this

  • Reality

    Hillsgrove Hal

    I have no problem understanding English. My problem is your characterization that Avedisian was a great Mayor. Scotty will go down as causing Warwick's bankruptcy. He was a total failure.

    Don't come back and tell us Warwick's predicament is caused by the council (the majority controlled by Scotty) because they didn't fund his tax increase a year ago. Hillsgrove Hal you fail to tell readers that Scotty's last budget gave away the store and he didn't fund the outlandish teachers contract he negotiated.

    Monday, June 24, 2019 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    mayer scotty didn't do it alone. he had a city counsel dat helped him. i donts member who was head of dat coucel, doe youse?

    Monday, June 24, 2019 Report this

  • Former User

    Get Real, you wrote:

    "My problem is your characterization that Avedisian was a great Mayor."

    Prove it. Find links to old comments and list them. Copy & paste my comments here.

    (See how I did that above, before your last comment, to show that I didn't say that?)

    And stop trying to distract people from the current council's mismanagement.

    Monday, June 24, 2019 Report this