Negotiations, Enactments To Bring City Healthcare Into The Black

The Woonsocket Budget Commission learned Tuesday that realized and anticipated union negotiations will bring the City's healthcare line item into the black by 2017.

Stephen Coleman, state-appointed financial advisor to the Budget Commission, told the Commission at Hamlet Middle School that the city’s Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) – or health care obligation – would show a positive balance of $14,000 in 2017.

Coleman said the figures are based on negotiated union agreements and the City's negotiating position on as-yet settled healthcare costs with public safety. The savings are the matter of two lawsuits, one from a group of police retirees and the second from a local taxpayer's group.

With the changes in place, the City's OPEB liability drops in 2014 from $162,522,042 to $92,802,891. The School Department's OPEB liability drops from $61,926,547 to $24,741,975, Coleman said.

The Commission's Veterans Day-bumped Tuesday meeting was sparsely attended by a group comprised mostly of City Councilors Al Brien, Bob Moreau and Councilors-elect Melissa Murray, Garrett Mancieri, and Mayor-elect Lisa Baldelli-Hunt.