EAST PROVIDENCE — The City Council, via a 3-2 tally at its October 18 meeting, gave final approval to an overall budget of $212,609,094 for Fiscal Year 2022-23. The budget takes effect as of Tuesday, Nov. 1, and runs through October 31, 2023.

The sum represents a year-over-year increase of $10,243,641 on the operational/capital side of the ledger from $177,570,346 to $187,813,987. It is also a bit more than initially suggested in the draft document submitted by the administration of Mayor Bob DaSilva, which sought $187,372,083 or about $9.5 million more than in FY21-22.

The all-encompassing figure as well includes the $24,795,107 enterprise (i.e. self-sustaining) fund needed to operate the city’s water/sewer system over the next 12 months.

The single largest expense on the operational side, $94,169,098 for the school department, was accepted without change. The school budget, the first submitted by new Superintendent Dr. Sandra Forand, represents a $2,041,960 increase in expenses from the previous fiscal year. 

Vote tally
Council president and Ward 1 member Bob Britto, Ward 3 representative Nate Cahoon and At-Large member Bob Rodericks vote to approve the budget after discussions on the subject during several workshops and meetings of the body over the previous seven weeks, including some back-and-forth at last Tuesday’s forum.

In summation of those in the affirmative, their vote to approve was seen as meeting  the needs and desires of residents at acceptable levels of additional expenditures while being fiscally responsible and keeping  the city on track to perform its basic duties.

Ward 4 member Ricardo Mourato and Ward 2 representative Anna Sousa, who both expressed reservations of some potential long-term impacts the increases could have in future years, were opposed.

Britto is the lone member not seeking re-election to the council on November 8. The three-term incumbent, initially elected to a pair of two-year terms in 2014 and ’16 then to a four-year term in 2018, won the Democratic nomination at the September Primary to replace Cynthia Mendes as the State Senator from District 18 (East Providence, Pawtucket). Mendes, only elected to the upper chamber in 2020, ran and lost the Democratic Primary as the lieutenant governor on the progressive ticket with gubernatorial candidate Matt Brown.

Increase estimates
The difference in the initial hike proposed by the mayor’s office and what was backed by the council, $740,556, means the .67 percent increase in the overall tax levy anticipated by Finance Director Malcolm Moore will now come in closer to 1.08%.

As he has throughout the budget season, Moore reminded the audience the actual tax rates for residential, commercial and tangible properties won’t be set until after the state-mandated revaluation is conducted by the end of the calendar year. Moore alerted the body, this being a mandatory reval year means the council has the option to alter the current rates individually for all three categories. During non-reval years, the three must be raised by the same percentage.

The .67% raise represented a projected total increase of $30 to the tax bills for each residential property owner during the next fiscal year. Moore said the 1.08% uptick likely lifts the projection closer to $48 per residence.

Additions/subtractions
The bit of back-and-forth at last Tuesday’s meeting on the last vestiges of proposed changes to the budget, which briefly got testy between Cahoon and Mourato, were due to the three-quarters of a million dollars in additions proposed at the end of the cycle.

The gist of the discourse was over Cahoon’s proposal to hire three new employees to the Public Works Parks Division, which meant an initial increase of $225,000. Cahoon said he came to the figure anticipating salaries for each of $50,000 and benefits packages of approximately $25,000.

In explaining his position, Cahoon noted the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management standard of one employee for every 30 acres of open space in a community, the upcoming $400,000 investment for improvements to Kent Field, the near $1 million construction of a new athletics field at Riverside Middle School and the pending donation to the city of some 9.5 acres of land as part of the redevelopment of the former Metacomet Country Club.

As it stands, Cahoon said, East Providence already had over 750 acres of municipal land that must cared for. At the moment the Parks Division only has seven full-time employees, meaning the ratio is roughly 1-to-100. The additional three FTEs will slightly curb that more favorably.

Among the other increases approved by the council, some of which will come as part of the Capital Improvements Budget, were: $50,000 for the purpose of repairs and painting of the cupola at the Weaver Library (Cahoon), $260,000 for traffic calming measures (Britto), $150,000 for the purpose of installing playing field lighting at Glenlyon Field (Britto) and $50,000 for the installation of permanent baseball batting cage pad at Pierce Memorial Field (Cahoon).

Cahoon and Britto also had a suggestion to add $45,264 for the purpose of hiring a city forester approved as part of the final document.

There was a sliver of agreement, however. The council, at the behest of Mourato and Britto, voted unanimously to trim a proposed increase in the future city clerk’s annual salary from $84,047 to an even $70,000.