June 7, 2010
Warwick School Activities Latest to Face Cuts
The story reported by NBC10 focused on proposed cuts to Warwick school sports. In fact, all school activities and a few other discretionary items are all that is left to cut out of the Warwick Schools budget (around $2.5 million if my memory serves correctly) if they are to begin to meet the funding limits proposed by Mayor Avedisian. Even then, more cuts will be required. The focus is on cutting discretionary spending because all other cuts require the re-opening of contracts.
However, if the public expresses their outrage over such potential cuts, the chances that the School Committee, Administration and Unions will re-visit those line item(s) that dominate the school budget (87%)--salaries and benefits--are greatly increased. The Warwick City Council will be dealing with this (and many other items) tonight at 6 PM.
I live in Warwick and I'll be damned if I'll sit back and allow my taxes to be raised to continue school sports merely because my neighbor is under the delusion that his little Billy is the next Tom Brady.
There's plenty of fat in the school budget which can be cut--43 million in fact, which figure represents how much MORE Warwick pays than Cranston to educate LESS students. And by the way, not only does Cranston do it for 43 million dollas less, but Cranston does it without cutting school sports. Something for Warwick voters to think about.
Every time I go to Warwick Vet's Administrative offices I see 3-4 people doing nothing. Gee, I wonder how they got, and get to keep, their jobs?
Posted by: Fed Up Warwick Taxpayer at June 8, 2010 7:58 AMOnly the public sector takes the bass-ackward approach of cutting the smallest part of the budget when revenues fall. In the real world (i.e., 95% of the time), everything is on the table and the first thing that is addressed is the largest item in the expenditure column.
Posted by: Monique at June 8, 2010 8:06 AM