Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By Gina Macris
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- The city of East Providence must be allowed to join in legal arguments against the teachers' union, which wants the Superior Court to reverse a salary cut effective at the end of the current pay period, Jan. 16.

City officials say it is particularly urgent that they be permitted to intervene in the case in light of a cumulative $9.3 million deficit projected for the schools and the possibility that the city is facing bankruptcy.

"It's worse than broke," Mayor Joseph S. Larisa Jr. said at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.

"If we were to pay all of [the school district's still accumulating deficit], we would need a 20 percent tax increase, at least, in this economy," he said.

This afternoon, City Solicitor Matthew T. Oliverio said, "We can't sit by idly. We have to intervene and advance very critical arguments" that Judge Mark A. Pfeiffer must consider before he decides whether to grant the relief sought by teachers.

The School Committee is counting on a salary rollback of about 5 percent that would save nearly $3 million by the end of the city's current fiscal year, Oct. 31.

"We laud the School Committee for their position," Oliverio said after a conference in Pfeiffer's chambers, "but it is not enough."

The school department incurred a $4.2 million deficit in the last budget cycle and is expected to rack up an additional $4.1 million in debt by the end of October, Oliverio said.

 Tags  East Providence Superior Court

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