R.I. Superior Court judge rejects lawsuit filed by Providence retirees over benefit cutbacks

R.I. SUPERIOR COURT Judge Sarah Taft-Carter on Thursday rejected a lawsuit filed by a group of retirees against Providence over cutbacks made to retirement benefits in 2011. The lawsuit stems from a decision made by former Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, shown testifying, after he took office in 2011, when he froze all cost-of-living adjustments for a decade, eliminated 5 percent to 6 percent increases entirely and moved all retirees age 65 and older to Medicare. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
R.I. SUPERIOR COURT Judge Sarah Taft-Carter on Thursday rejected a lawsuit filed by a group of retirees against Providence over cutbacks made to retirement benefits in 2011. The lawsuit stems from a decision made by former Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, shown testifying, after he took office in 2011, when he froze all cost-of-living adjustments for a decade, eliminated 5 percent to 6 percent increases entirely and moved all retirees age 65 and older to Medicare. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

PROVIDENCE – An R.I. Superior Court judge on Thursday rejected a lawsuit filed by a group of retirees against Providence over cutbacks made to retirement benefits in 2011.

“The court finds that [the retirees] failed to meet their burden of demonstrating their claim,” Superior Court Judge Sarah J. Taft-Carter wrote in her decision.

The lawsuit stems from a decision made by former Providence Mayor Angel Taveras after he took office in 2011. The then-mayor faced a projected $110 million structural deficit, so among other changes he made to the budget, he took aim at retiree benefits. Taveras froze all cost-of-living adjustments for a decade, eliminated 5 percent to 6 percent increases entirely and moved all retirees age 65 and older to Medicare.

Most retirees negotiated and settled with the city, but a group of 67 retirees decided to opt out and sue separately. The case became known as the Providence “opt-out case.”

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Taft-Carter in July made a similar ruling in Cranston, which faced its own opt-out case for comparable cuts made by Mayor Allan W. Fung in 2012.

In Providence, Taveras inherited a city pension plan funded at 34 percent with an unfunded liability of $828.4 million. The cutbacks helped shore up the city’s short-term financial troubles, but only temporarily made a dent in the ever-growing long-term obligations related to pension and other retiree benefits.

Last fiscal year, unfunded liabilities for the Providence pension plan grew 9.4 percent – or $84.3 million – to $985.1 million compared with a year earlier.

The Cranston case was appealed to R.I. Supreme Court. It’s unclear whether the Providence retirees will follow suit, as representatives of the group could not be immediately reached for comment.

A call seeking comment from the city was not immediately returned.

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