Former GOP Mayoral candidate, Dan Harrop, responds to budget

Maybe I’m a little biased, but I enjoyed this piece in the Projo today.

DURING the last election campaign, when I was the mayor’s Republican opponent, Mayor David Cicilline was quite clear that he expected the state and federal government to come to the city’s aid with increased funding, even though it was quite clear the state was about to face its own budget crisis, and the federal government had long since abandoned the city.

…

I challenged him to “fix our own house” without outside aid and challenged him on the effectiveness of our Democratic General Assembly representatives in getting aid he said we needed; he said he could count on our General Assembly members “if only the governor” would support him. But our Democratic representatives have not been able to get us any increased outside aid. So perhaps now is the time to again look at the Republican proposals to close the nearly $20 million budget gap.

In the last election, we Republicans supported generating additional revenue by shedding unnecessary assets, such as unused or under-used city-owned land. Putting these tracts back into the hands of private citizens would generate short-term revenue and expand the property-tax base. …

We Republicans supported lifting the moratorium on charter schools — public schools freed of many of the regulations imposed on traditional public schools. We would give principals greater authority over hiring and firing teachers. That is one of the most effective ways to improve instruction without more money.

We Republicans supported regionalized administrative school services, such as transportation or meal services, and regionalized specialty schools in the arts and sciences.

We supported immediate changes in the ongoing pension system, moving to a pay-as-you-go system, something the all-Democratic City Council has refused to move on. We supported plans for a full review and audit of the city’s finances, including its alarming pension obligations, and of a tax structure oppressive for many individuals and businesses.

As it becomes clear that the city is not going to have the state and federal money that the mayor talked about for his budget, now is the time to re-evaluate the Republican proposals from the last election, and begin putting our own house in order with our own resources.

This article is reflective Dr. Harrop’s platform in his 2006 mayoral campaign.  He joined with Republican candidates citywide to form a Contract with Providence which highlighted many of the suggestions in the above piece.  This was the first time a broad coalition of Republican candidates citywide proposed real solutions to many of Providence’s daunting problems. 

The Providence budget broken down

Today’s Projo, breaks down the city budget to explicit numbers.

$625.9 million – cuts + tax increases = $616.7 million budget

Cuts:

$6.25 million in education funding

$800,000 from the Fire Department

$700,000 from the Police Department

$825,000 in 16 vacant city positions that will not be filled

$4.6 million in unused city property will be sold

Tax increase:

4.25% on average property tax bill

Just like the police and fire department are without union contracts, city union contracts expired July 1. This budget includes no money for salary increases for city union employees which number 5,000. Cicilline vows there will be no further tax increase to compensate this error.

In response to the city’s obvious dependency on the general assembly, Cicilline had this to say:

“Cities and towns are not going to the General Assembly asking for a handout. Cities and towns are going to the General Assembly asking for our fair share of what we turn over to them.” 

…I beg to differ.