****Watch entire news conference on YouTube****

PROVIDENCE – Mayor David N. Cicilline today briefed the media on details of the revised FY 2010 budget, which will be submitted to the City Council on July 13.  The budget reflects Mayor Cicilline’s unrelenting commitment to protecting services for residents when they need them the most during historically challenging economic times.

“This is a budget that puts residents first and reflects my commitment to protecting services while responding to extraordinarily difficult financial challenges.  Those challenges have been made worse by the total elimination of general revenue sharing by the General Assembly,” said Mayor Cicilline.  “It reduces spending, protects the level of services to residents while spreading the sacrifice as equitably as possible.”

The revised FY 10 budget proposal contains the following cost-cutting measures and structural reforms:

• Wage freeze for all union and non-union employees
• Mandatory 20% health insurance co-pay for all non-union management employees
• Across the board cuts in all City departments
• Draws from the City’s “rainy day” fund, a reserve that was depleted when the Mayor first took office and, over the past six years, has been restored to levels that have resulted in positive credit ratings from Wall Street.
• Pension reform
• Eliminates funding for 30 full-time positions
• Enacts cost-saving concessions from City unions
• Calls for a 2.26% increase in the tax levy, which translates into an approximately $51 increase for a family owning a house valued at $200,000 (comparison of other RI cities and towns)

The revised budget represents a cut of $25 million, a 4% reduction in spending over the past year.  The cost-saving measures are in addition to steps the City has already taken to rein in costs by eliminating 445 positions, reducing spending in City departments and instituting mandatory furlough days for all non-union employees three years in a row. 

Mayor Cicilline thanked the men and women of Local 1033 and the Providence Teachers Union for recognizing the need for shared sacrifices during these challenging economic times.  Both contracts agreed to by the majority of City employees have resulted in important savings through increases in health insurance co-pays and wage freezes.

“As more and more families struggle with losing their jobs or losing their homes to foreclosure, it is the absolute wrong time to consider cutting important City services.  To do so would be reckless and irresponsible,” said the Mayor.  “If all of our employee unions do not step forward with contract concessions for the sake of the taxpayers, then the City will be forced to take action that achieves those savings by another method, and that’s exactly what we are faced with now.

The Mayor’s revised budget proposal now goes to the City Council Finance Committee for consideration.  A public hearing on the budget has been scheduled for July 23 at 5:30pm.

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