East Providence Could Now Be Facing $15 Million Deficit

City leaders have recently learned that East Providence could be facing a deficit of as much as $15 million — and they want the public's suggestions for some solutions. 

The revised projections were made public at a deficit elimination meeting last week and reflect liabilities on both the city and school sides of the budget, School Committee chairman Charles Tsonos said. 

"The projections are a little astonishing," he said. "We need to take them seriously, although we need to investigate the numbers more." 

The city's current budget is about $141 million and the school district's portion of that is more than $70 million. Tsonos said that he thinks there have been issues in the city that have either been neglected or avoided in the past. 

"But we need to move forward," he said. "We can't afford to postpone the hard choices."

Components of the yawning deficit include increases in health care costs, pension obligations and outstanding bills, Tsonos said. The school's buildings also need a lot of maintence work, another issue that he said has been "ignored for a long time."

At the same time, he said that the student population in the district has dropped by about 1,000 students over the past nine years. East Providence also has a significant population of special education students. 

Asked about teachers' contracts, which comprise a large portion of the school district's budget, Tsonos agreed that the firefighters recently worked out an agreement with the city that included concessions and still saved the city money. 

"It's got to be a combination of streamlining operations and creating new revenue," Tsonos said. "I believe that it is doable."

There are also discrepancies in the projections on the school and city side, as the school side figured in a 3.5 percent tax increase each year and the city side projections included no tax increase.

He and other committee members are looking to the public for suggestions. At the next meeting, which will be scheduled shortly, members are presenting short and longer terms plans, Tsonos said.