(Updated 2:52 p.m.) PROVIDENCE – Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza on Wednesday unveiled his first-ever proposed city budget, which – like the three budgets before – holds the line on the commercial tax rate.
But it increases city fees and asks for state funding that the governor has already proposed to cut.
The $696 million city and school budget for fiscal 2016 represents a 2.7 percent increase from the fiscal 2015 budget. The first-term mayor, as promised during his campaign, wants to freeze the commercial tax rate, but proposes “increases in parking meter and fee revenues,” he said during an address to City Council.
“The $696 million budget that I present to you this evening sets Providence on a firm path for the future,” Elorza said in his address. “This budget hits the reset button and plants the seed for a new Providence.”
The city is providing only a rudimentary breakdown of revenue sources and expenditure amounts until the mayor officially submits the proposed budget to the City Council on Friday. To make up for not raising taxes, Elorza suggests augmenting several revenue sources, include business permitting fees.
Elorza said he would invest in a new “business concierge” position within the Department of Economic Development, which would “work directly with developers and business owners who are looking to invest” in Providence.
The proposed new position comes at a time when the Department of Economic Development director’s position sits vacant. Elorza told Providence Business News earlier this month that he would likely fill the position by his budget address and a city spokesman said on Thursday that they had chosen a candidate and an announcement would be made “very soon.”
WPRI reports that the mayor is looking for a 10 percent increase in building permits and business licenses fees.
The new mayor is also looking for the restoration of $2.5 million – plus about that amount – in payment in lieu of taxes that Gov. Gina M. Raimondo has proposed to cut from her state’s budget.
Elorza calls the I-195 district a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Providence and Rhode Island,” but made no mention of the proposed – and highly discussed – Pawtucket Red Sox who want to move their stadium to the Providence land.
Property taxes are $254 million – or 36.5 percent – of the proposed revenue budget. The mayor assumes a 2 percent expansion of the city’s tax base and said he has “discovered nearly $500,000 in new tax revenue from equipment and facility upgrades at the waterfront that had been built but untaxed for years.”
Following a tough winter, the mayor is proposing a 13 percent increase to the city’s snow budget and a 10 percent increase in street sweeping, along with an “aggressive tree pruning program.”
Elorza said the most recent winter could be the “new normal” and the increased public works budget would also go toward the purchase of new equipment.
The proposed budget makes good on 100 percent of the city’s pension payment. It proposes a new police academy and a new fire academy with a reduction on call-back hours in the Fire Department, which could save the city $5 million in overtime pay, according to the mayor.
Providence public schools make up 32.8 percent of the overall revenue budget totaling $228.6 million and about $354 million – or 50.8 percent – of proposed expenditures, which includes a proposed a $7.2 million increase from last year.
It also makes good on a $10 million bond to provide renovations to some of the city’s “most neglected buildings,” Elorza said.
Elorza, in his address, called this a “crucial time” for the city.
“This budget reflects my administration’s innovative, efficient approach to governing,” Elorza said. “It is built to serve the people who live, work and visit our city.”
