PROVIDENCE – Amid continued financial strains posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the City Council Finance Committee is considering leaving currently open positions unfilled in the next fiscal year budget.
The Classification and Compensation Ordinance introduced at the council finance committee’s Oct. 13 meeting would save the city an estimated $4.2 million in fiscal 2021 by not filling 56 open, vacant positions and removing an additional 16 new positions, according to Billy Kepner, the council’s deputy chief of staff. The ordinance also calls for keeping salaries of current nonunion employees flat with no cost-of-living increases.
Council Finance Chairman John Igliozzi called the proposal a “prudent measure” to not “further put ourselves into a bind.”
“The fiscal forecast for the city of Providence is in peril,” Igliozzi said in a statement. “As the legislative body, we have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of Providence to work in their best interest.”
While the city has not yet passed a full fiscal 2021 budget as it awaits state aid, it has implemented cost-cutting measures such as hiring freezes and employee furloughs.
“$4 million savings in vacant and open funded positions and raises is an opportunity to reduce our spending while preserving our current workforce, which is essential to keeping our city running,” Committee Vice Chairwoman and Council Majority Leader Jo-Ann Ryan said in a statement.
The council also already passed a $358 million tax levy that would keep taxes level-funded for fiscal 2021.
The ordinance has not yet been voted on by the committee and would also require approval from the full council. The positions, which were included in Mayor Jorge O. Elorza’s original $507 million budget, can be revisited when the city receives state aid, the council said in a news release.
Nancy Lavin is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.
