April may not be Eliot’s cruelest month, but this time of year does remind us that nothing in life is certain but the ancient cliché of death and taxes. In Rhode Island you can also bank on the Smith Hill pols making themselves look good at the expense of the state’s 39 cities and towns.
Lawmakers have approved measures tipping the balance to public employee unions whose leaders negotiate contracts with mayors and town and city councils. And Governor Gina Raimondo has embarked on a desultory campaign to provide free tuition at the state’s colleges and university. It’s a fine idea but even the Democrats who run the Assembly don’t think the state can afford it this year.
Speaker Nick Mattiello wants you to think he’s a fine fellow because he’s led the charge to roll back the nettlesome car tax. Then there’s Senate President Dominick Ruggerio who wants to build a huge tower in downtown Providence, regardless of what residents of the capital city want.
While the Statehouse pols bleat their hihowahyes and blithely chase pet causes, the problems for the state’s communities pile up like traffic at Scarborough Beach on a scalding July morning.
Where to begin? The faltering public schools? The twin ticking time bombs of retiree pensions and health insurance obligations? The governor’s plan to slice millions in payments in lieu of taxes to communities, particularly Providence and Cranston? The plan to legalize pot without ensuring that local police departments get the training and money they need to deal with it? How about the scoop of millions from the corporation that runs the Johnston landfill? The yawning lack of affordable housing?
Those are just the obvious topics. Even in the budget minutia, the Statehouse nibbles away at the communities. One frustrating Raimondo plan, says League of Cities and Towns Director Brian Daniels, would impose a $5 surcharge for every car owner with past due taxes. The state estimates this will yield an additional $400,000 a year, which is barely a drip in the $10 billion budget. Yet, city and town officials would have to waste time collecting this fee.
And don’t get any taxpayer started on why the state allows municipal cops and firefighters to stay on paid disability for longer than our country’s troops have been in Afghanistan. Not to mention the budget-busting police and firefighter disability pensions that too many somehow qualify for.
Sadly, all this isn’t new. Rhode Islanders will long recall the caustic Assembly pension debate of 2011. That’s when then-state treasurer Raimondo and lawmakers approved changes that cut pension benefits to state employees and teachers to shore up the retirement system. If you think that solved the public pension red ink, you believe in astrology. That much ballyhooed pension overhaul did nothing to help communities with their mountains of retiree liabilities.
A recent study by General Treasurer Seth Magaziner showed many local pension funds in deep trouble. Systems in West Warwick, Coventry, Central Falls, Cranston, Johnston, Woonsocket and Providence are in critical condition. Providence’s pension is still hung over from the reign of Mayor Buddy Cianci. Mayor Jorge Elorza planned to fix the pension mess by selling or leasing the city’s biggest asset, the water supply system that runs the Scituate Reservoir and feeds drinking water to more than 60 percent of Rhode Island. Speaker Mattiello pronounced the proposal dead on arrival. Does any politician think any business will want to come to the state’s capital city if it’s in bankruptcy?
It’s easy to understand the Assembly’s decision to force cities and towns into an overtime straight jacket with the firefighters unions. These unions supply ample campaign contributions. Their members plant lawn signs during campaign season. And if this costs more money, well it’s not a Statehouse problem. The folks who have to raise the property taxes aren’t lawmakers, they’re the mayors, town managers and city and town councils.
Ok, so your car taxes are headed down, which is a good thing. But if the Smith Hill gang sloughs more costs off to communities, the property taxes homeowners pay will go up.
Looks like another Statehouse bait and switch.
Scott MacKay’s Commentary can be heard every Monday morning at 6:45 and 8:45 and on Monday afternoon at 5:44.
