Council Passes $50.6 Million Budget

The Town Council voted 3-1 Monday night to pass a $50.6 million budget for fiscal year 2013, after a budgetary sleight of hand that increased the revenue line by $400,000. Council President Michael Isaacs and Councilmen Mark Gee and Jeff Cianciolo voted in favor of the budget; Mike Kiernan voted against it. Henry Boezi was absent.

What that means for individual taxpayers is not yet clear, since the town has just gone through a revaluation. But Town Manager Bill Sequino did offer an estimate.

“An estimated rate, emphasis on estimated,” he said, “is somewhere in the neighborhood of $20.10, $20.20” per $1,000 of new assessed value. In other words, if your house was recently assessed by the town at $400,000, your tax bill for 2013 would be a little over $8,000.

The budget vote came after town and school officials learned Monday afternoon that state reimbursement for school construction would be between $300,000 and $500,000 lower than expected. Officials emphasized that the town would still get the state reimbursement, but not all the anticipated reimbursement would come next year.

In fact, School Supt. Victor Mercurio said he knew that some of the reimbursement would be held up because, for one, Meadowbrook isn’t complete. It was unclear Monday night why reimbursement for Meadowbrook would have been anticipated at all, since RIDE regulations state that projects must be completed by June 30 of the previous year before the state reimbursement kicks in. Work at Meadowbrook, the last major project to be paid for out of the $52 million bond issue approved by voters in 2008, is only now getting under way.

Another reimbursement question remains to be answered — that one by the General Assembly. East Greenwich had budgeted for 40 percent reimbursement. Gov. Chafee's budget proposes cutting that to 35 percent. That's a $250,000 question that may not be answered until after EG's Financial Town Meeting.

A 4-0 vote to increase the budgeted tax collection percentage from 98 percent to 99 percent provided an immediate $400,000 boost to the town’s ‘13 budget bottom line, keeping the tax rate increase in the same ballpark as before despite the reduced RIDE reimbursement.

That still left the question of the School Committee’s request for $254,000 in additional budget money next year.

None of the councilors present were prepared to give the School Committee the full $254,000. Cianciolo and Isaacs were prepared to give them an additional $200,000, but Gee and Kiernan voted no. Then Gee put forth a motion for giving them $125,000 extra, seconded by Kiernan. This time, Cianciolo and Isaacs voted no.

Cianciolo then put forward a third motion giving the schools an additional $175,000. That got Gee’s vote, giving them the majority.

After the meeting, Kiernan noted that many town departments were getting budget cuts. The schools were already getting an increase, he said. “Keep their increase in line with everyone else,” he said.

“I think they really wanted to fund the schools at the level we asked,” said School Committee Chairwoman Deidre Gifford, who was at Monday’s meeting along with Supt. Mercurio and colleagues David Green and Jack Sommer. “The Council is juggling a lot of things,” she said.

The budget now goes before voters at the Financial Town Meeting in June.