Council wins budget battle, overrides Mayor’s veto

WOONSOCKET – Despite Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt’s objection and formal veto, the City Council voted to adopt a city budget that raises the residential and commercial tax rates in order to fund increases to the schools and to the salaries of several city employees, among other changes.

Baldelli-Hunt’s proposed budget, the release of which was delayed due to a vendor issue, proposed a $9.95 drop in the residential tax rate from last fiscal year, and a $9.00 drop in the commercial rate. The City Council proposed a $9.77 drop and $8.81 drop in the residential and commercial rates, respectively.

Council members justified the slight increase from the mayor’s proposed budget as necessary to cover recurring costs and show state agencies that the city is willing to attempt funding some larger projects before asking for state aid.

“It’s incongruent to be asking for all this money while at the same time not having a little bit of skin in the game,” said Council member James Cournoyer in Monday night’s threehour City Council Meeting. “It’s a very modest increase. I get that every dollar counts, but the reality is, we don’t want to set up a budget that has basically a structural deficit.”

The council approved a series of line-item amendments to the mayor’s proposed budget by passing ordinances at the last regular meeting on June 20. In addition to changing the tax rates, the amendment increased the city’s total budget to $155.8 million, up about $500,000 from Baldelli-Hunt’s proposal.

“The problems that we’re experiencing now, as individuals, with automobile fuel, heating fuel, food costs – just all of the other ancillary purchases that we make – are all factors that impact the individual, but they impact the city as well,” said Council President Daniel Gendron. “Unfortunately, if we don’t act prudently, to me, I’ve always believed one-time fixes are problems in any budget.”

Baldelli-Hunt vetoed the two ordinances that concerned the overall amount budgeted for the next fiscal year and the tax rate.

“The Mayor’s proposed Fiscal Year 2023 Budget offered a sensible residential and commercial tax rate to Woonsocket taxpayers who have been burdened over the past

two years by the negative health, social and economic consequences brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Baldelli-Hunt wrote in her message of disapproval.

She argued that the budget increases added by the City Council could be paid for using federal American Rescue Plan Act funds without having to change the tax rate.

Woonsocket received over $36 million in ARPA funds, about three quarters of which came directly from the federal government, according to data from the U.S. Department of Treasury. While there are some restrictions on how the funds can be used, they are broadly intended to maintain public services in the face of revenue declines and support a strong economic recovery from the pandemic. The city has already earmarked about $14 million of the funds.

Baldelli-Hunt proposed paying for about 81% of the council’s $628,000 in increases using ARPA funds.

“You do not have to raise the tax rate. We can accomplish this, we can make these changes, we can adjust the budget and we can keep the rate at $13.80,” Baldelli-Hunt told the council. “This is not a Band-Aid approach.”

Among the increases included in the City Council’s amendment are a 3.5% salary increase for nearly all director-level and assistant

director-level city employees. Police Chief Thomas Oates and Fire Chief Paul Shatraw are both receiving $10,000 raises, and Deputy Police Chief Thomas Calouro is also getting a $7,557 raise.

The amended budget also includes an $150,000 increase in the local appropriation for the school district, something the School Committee explicitly asked for in June. Prior to this year, the school budget had not seen an increase since 2020, according to city budget documents. The School Committee sought roughly $650,000, the max amount they could, hoping to stave off a budget shortfall when federal aid runs out in the next three years.

The budget also adds $216,000 to the contingency fund, which Cournoyer said was important to cover at least four union contracts that will be renegotiated this year, and other “exposures” such as pending tax cases and abatements.

“There’s some money out there in terms of ARPA, but, trust me, there’s lots of calls on it, lots of needs, so I will not support the mayor’s veto,” Cournoyer said.

Other budget increases include a little over $30,000 to the library for new books and supplies, $40,000 to fund this year’s elections and $160,000 to the Gaston A. Ayotte Jr. Memorial Senior Center to use at their discretion.