Providence
When Mayor Angel Taveras took office, he discovered, very much contrary to the assertions of outgoing Mayor David Cicilline, that Providence’s finances were a “category five hurricane“. Yesterday, in a Providence Journal article, Providence Finance Director Michael L. Pearis pulled down the hurricane flags. “We turned a pretty significant thing around,” said Pearis, who was…
Has anyone else been paying attention to the job that Dan McGowan has been doing with his coverage on the Providence Economic Development Partnership (PEDP) for GoLocalProv? It seems just about every other day, he has some other important piece to the whole puzzle and further explaining the fund and how it has been used…
Stop me around the part that no longer makes any sense. Here are some values for you. This theoretical family nets $61,000 a year in income. That’s after taxes. However, they find that in spite of cutting everything they think they can cut and is unnecessary, and trying to bring in extra money through second…
In his Saturday column, Ted Nesi makes a point that I’d been thinking about as the week came to a close, related to a proposed $40 million infrastructure bond in Providence: Governments should borrow to fund long-term infrastructure projects that have a higher rate of return than the interest on the bonds, but [in Providence’s…
Lots of detail about a proposed settlement negotiated between Providence Mayor Angel Tavares and the heads of the city’s employees’ unions is available from WPRI-TV‘s (CBS 12) Ted Nesi and Tim White, including provisions like this one…Going forward, pensions will max out based on the same equation as the COLA freeze: either 150% of the…
According to a Ted Nesi article on WPRI.com yesterday, Providence will be receiving a $5 million advance from Johnson & Wales University (JWU) immediately. Back in February, JWU agreed to commit $6.4 million to the city over the next 10 years. What also makes this interesting is the city’s explanation on what they’ll do with…
According to multiple reports today, two Providence Councilors, John Igliozzi and Terry Hassett now are seeking to amend the ordinance that the City Council just voted on a few days ago, to now lessen the cuts by $3-4 million. From the RINPR blog: “I am acting in what I believe to be a much fairer…
Further evidence we’re on the cutting edge of history here in Rhode Island — The municipal pension changes proposed by Mayor Angel Tavares have already made the Economist (that’s the famous British periodical, not some blogger with that handle)…Thus this week’s ordinance, in which the city suspended the cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) by which pensions are…
Last night, the Providence City Council voted to approve substantive, though compared to the shortfall, modest, pension reform. At the meeting, an irate firefighter demanded to know Can you tell us what the rush is? Today, Standard & Poor’s supplied the answer. S&P lowered Providence’s credit rating to BBB, two steps from junk-bond status, from…
Rhode Island’s Twitter corps has once again provided the public with excellent as-it’s-happening coverage of public developments in Providence’s fiscal crisis, in this case the meeting held this morning between Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and city retirees. Here’s a brief compilation that captures the flavor of the meeting… Ted Nesi (WPRI, CBS 12): The Taveras…