When municipal officials from 10 northern Rhode Island communities gathered earlier this month, a strange thing happened in a state where traditionally leaders don’t easily loosen their grip on what they control:
Most of them agreed that folding their individual emergency dispatching services into one regional center would be a good move to cut costs.
“I think the public in general is ready for us to look for ways to pool our resources,” Cumberland Mayor Daniel McKee said afterward. “This seems to be one of the safe things that can be consolidated without much political pressure.”
These leaders aren’t alone in their spirit of cooperation.
Faced with gaping budget deficits at the state level, state and local officials are making suggestions, recommendations and floating ideas about regionalization and consolidation that normally wouldn’t fly in communities accustomed to providing their own services, their own way.
On Aquidneck Island, Newport, Middletown and Portsmouth are contemplating sharing trash pickup and school busing services.
In Cranston, officials are debating whether they can do away with the school committee and pass control of education to an expanded city council.
At the General Assembly, there has been talk for years about merging the state’s 36 school districts into either one or a few regional entities. The talk has been stepped up this year.
Legislation to create four regional districts has been introduced by Rep. Victor Moffitt (R-Coventry). There’s also a bill drafted by Rep. Peter Kilmartin (D-Pawtucket) seeking to create the position of superintendent for each county in the state.
And there’s this: In legislation introduced earlier this month, Rep. Joseph N. Amaral (R-Portsmouth) is seeking to merge Rhode Island College and the Community College of Rhode Island with the University of Rhode Island to form one mega-university.
One of the ultimate consolidation proposals came from Rep. Nicholas Gorham (R-Coventry), who drafted a measure to merge five western Rhode Island communities – Scituate, Glocester, Foster, Exeter and West Greenwich – and part of Coventry into one town called Westconnaug.
Even among officials looking to cut spending where they can, Gorham’s idea may be too much.
“There’s definitely support from the people to trim costs,” said Scituate Town Council President Robert Budway. “But I’m not too sure this is the route to go.”
Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva-Weed (D-Newport) shrugged off the Gorham’s proposal, saying it was “a simplistic approach.”
That said, Paiva-Weed insisted she is very committed to the move toward the consolidation and regionalization of other services, saying some legislators are willing to mandate it for cities and towns, if need be.
She noted that communities could reap savings if they shared Medicaid billing services or joined together to bid for a school hot lunch contract. “We can do it statewide and save money,” Paiva-Weed said.
This year’s rallying cries of consolidation and regionalization were prompted by the state’s budget woes and gained some traction after Gov. Donald L. Carcieri last month unveiled midyear revisions to the fiscal 2008 state budget designed to close a projected $151 million deficit. The supplemental spending package included $10 million in cuts to non-education aid to local governments.
In his State of the State address a few days later, Carcieri referenced a Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council report that indicated the state’s municipal spending on fire protection is the highest in the nation, and the cost of policing is 10th. He told local leaders they should share more services to reduce overhead.
In addition, he proposed legislation that would allow a single umbrella health care contract for all state, municipal and school employees.
A new 5-percent property tax cap is putting additional pressure on local officials to find places to slash spending.
With the near future looking bleak, some officials have made bold proposals and refloated controversial ideas from years past, when there wasn’t enough political will to get them through. “When do you stop talking and just do it,” said Ernest Carlucci, Cranston’s director of administration.
In the fiscal 2008 budget, $21.9 million in non-education state aid had been earmarked for Cranston. Now the city stands to lose nearly $1 million of it if the governor’s supplemental budget is approved.
“Where do you come up with $1 million with five months to go in the year?” Carlucci said. “Everything’s on the table from our point of view.”
Indeed, Cranston City Council President Aram Garabedian earlier this month proposed transferring authority of the School Department to the City Council as a way of streamlining city government. Such a move would have to be approved by voters in Cranston because it requires a change in the city charter.
“The way things are working just don’t work anymore,” Carlucci said.
But is the financial situation dire enough to get these types of consolidation proposal approved?
Dan Beardsley, director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, isn’t so sure.
“There’s a parochialism that’s existed in New England and particularly in Rhode Island since the states were incorporated,” Beardsley said. “And once these proposals start to surface, I think the parochialism is going to take center stage.”
Beardsley noted that 500 parents protested in Warwick recently when an advisory committee proposed the closure of a middle school to save money.
“The people want things cut, but they don’t want their individual lives impacted,” he said. “And I think that is one of the biggest hurdles that city and town councils have to overcome – weighing their budget-balancing initiatives with the wishes of the people.”
There have been successes.
For instance, Newport, Portsmouth, Middletown, Little Compton and Tiverton share the special education costs for staffing, transportation and other services for about 1,600 students.
And there’s a purchasing collaborative already in place called the Governmental Health Group of Rhode Island that has saved several cities and towns thousands of dollars.
Paiva-Weed said statewide busing for special education students and private and charter school students is in process of being placed under one umbrella with the R.I. Department of Education. “Just this one collaborative alone will save our cities and towns millions of dollars,” she said. “And that translates into property tax relief.”
Also, there’s a state mandate that all cities and towns eventually use the same financial software. “So we’re going to able to look in each community to determine expenditures,” Paiva-Weed said. “And this will allow us to gain entrance to more collaboration.”
A group of 12 Rhode Island communities have formed a group they have dubbed the Coalition of Communities to Improve Rhode Island to discuss education costs and emergency dispatching services, according to McKee, one of the founding members of the coalition.
One the next issues on the agenda: collaborating to reduce health insurance costs.
Lincoln Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond said teaming up to seek health insurance contracts has been done elsewhere in the state, and it could save Lincoln as much as $300,000 a year.
“Our basic premise is we can share some services and cut costs and our communities can still maintain their own identities,” Almond said. •
