Councilors Aim to Disband Budget Commission

The Woonsocket City Council voted unanimously to ask State House reps for a bill disbanding the Woonsocket Budget Commission during their April 1 meeting, an action Town Council President John Ward said was regretfully symbolic.

The resolution, which asks the city's General Assembly delegates: Representatives Stephen M. Casey (D – Dist. 50), Lisa Baldelli Hunt (D – Dist. 49) and Robert D. Phillips (D – Dist. 51), Senators Marc A. Cote (D - District 24, Woonsocket, North Smithfield) and Senator Roger A. Picard(D - District 20, Woonsocket, Cumberland), to introduce legislation to disband the Woonsocket Budget Commission.

The resolution also asks for companion legislation to require the state to adequately and equitably fund distressed communities' (a club Woonsocket belongs to) education costs before resorting to a supplemental tax.

The resolution (see attached .pdf) lays out a lengthy criticism of the State Department of Revenue and the Budget Commission for failing to permanently accelerate state aid to the city or to publicly acknowledge the state's role in the city's financial woes through inadequate education aid and the city's use of deficit reduction bonds under the state's leadership. 

"I don't know what led to any hesitation to asking for my contribution to this," Ward said, "but I would've loved to have participated. My presence on the Budget Commission is by statute, not by choice." 

"I will be supporting this resolution, though I know, in my heart, as a rational argument, I doubt there will be a sponsor of any legislation from our General Assembly delegation, because I don't know that there's a simple thing, to simply introduce and pass. And, I am confident that the state is not allowed to cut a check," Ward said.

But Ward said he thought it was appropriate to remind the state that they have not done their job properly, failing to adequately fund education in Woonsocket and city communities.  "They have formulated education funding in such a way that it punishes the urban students," Ward said.

If the situation goes too far, he added, the best thing citizens interested in giving their children a good education will be able to do is to "leave town".