Local governments need more control over their spending

To the editor,
As mayor of Rhode Island’s fourth largest city and the current president of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, I read with interest your recent editorial about the municipal role in addressing the state budget crisis (“R.I. towns need to step up on budget” 5/26). On your assertion that local governments “have a responsibility and a role to play in helping Rhode Island get through this ordeal,” we couldn’t agree more.
Municipal governments have long understood the importance of innovation and efficiency in delivering services – it is the only way to protect property taxpayers. Cities and towns have worked to modernize, collaborate, and create efficiencies, like joining together to negotiate lower group rates on insurance and energy costs, saving tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
But dozens of state laws effectively tie the hands of local governments attempting to wring more costs out of the system. Consider these examples:
A state financing law called the Caruolo Act enables school committees to circumvent, thru judicial proceedings, another state law which limits the amount of money they can request in their budget proposals to communities.
State arbitration laws enable unaccountable third-party panels to dictate the outcome of disputes between public safety unions – and local governments, regardless of the whether or not the community has the money to meet the union’s demands.
Pension benefits for local employees, paid for by local governments, are determined by state law.
What needs to be done? First and foremost, elimination of the restrictions imposed by the overwhelming number of state laws that stand in the way of local governments’ ability to control their spending. This includes reforming education finance laws by repealing the Caruolo Act, creating equitable and consistent formulas for state aid distribution; changing labor laws, particularly arbitration laws for police and fire departments; and enacting immediate pension reform.
Cities and towns stand ready to be part of the solution in Rhode Island – the state needs to untie their hands.
Pawtucket Mayor James E. Doyle
President, Rhode Island
League of Cities and Towns