$40M infrastructure bond proposal dead; Providence finance committee withdraws support
By Kirsten Glavin
@kirstenglavin
PROVIDENCE, RI – Providence City Council President, Luis Aponte took the podium Tuesday evening to announce the finance committee is officially withdrawing its support from the proposed $40 million dollar infrastructure bond.
Although voters will still find the bond on the November ballot, the plan is essentially dead, regardless of the outcome.
"That $40 million-dollar bond, if enacted, would only begin to scratch the surface of our infrastructure needs,” said Council President Aponte.
Finance committee members announced that new data received over the course of the past month and a half, shows the city cannot handle more debt. A few of the concerns include an unsustainable pension burn rate, weak credit rating, negative fund balance and restructuring both the police and fire departments.
"We need to keep the city going in a good financial direction,” said Finance Committee Chairman John Igliozzi. “Adding more debt to it in the amount of $40-million dollars traditionally is not the way you go."
They committee described the city’s G.O. bond rating as one level above "junk."
However, Mayor Jorge Elorza’s administration has been pushing for the $40 million dollars to improve streets, bridges, dams and more.
"How can I tell a developer to come here if I can’t even pave a road?" argued Robin Muksian-Schutt, the city’s Director of Administration.
Muksian-Schutt was quick to call attention to months of political tension between the administration and city council. She called the council leadership’s decision to pull support for the bond, a political stunt.
"What the trouble was really coming down to was wanting individualized control,” Muksian-Schutt said.
Council President Aponte had recently proposed giving councilors control over half of the $40 million to use for specific needs in their respective wards.
The Mayor called it a slush fund and refused to support it.
Tuesday night, he released the following statement:
"I am disappointed that the City Council’s finance committee has once again failed to pass a resolution that would allow us to invest $40 million in much needed infrastructure work. We have significant and severe infrastructure needs and it is an act of negligence to not address them now. I remain committed to working with council members who agree on a solution that minimizes waste, is transparent, and invests in every neighborhood."
Other city councilors also released the following Tuesday evening in response to the finance committee’s refusal of support.
Providence city council members Wilbur Jennings, Jr., Nicholas Narducci, David Salvatore, Seth Yurdin and Samuel Zurier issued a statement today concerning the city council leadership’s failure to approve a ‘clean’ infrastructure bond which will appear on the November ballot:
“It is troubling that the city council leadership has continued to demand member-controlled slush funds rather than pass a ‘clean’ infrastructure bond. They have placed political gamesmanship above our residents’ interest. Their choice will deprive the city of necessary resources to repair streets, sidewalks, sewers, bridges and parks – all critical to economic development, jobs and quality of life in our city. We support Mayor Elorza’s firm stand against their proposal. Equally troubling is the leadership’s claim that fiscal constraints drove their inability to pass the ‘clean’ bond. All of those constraints were well known when they advanced their initial "slush fund” ordinance in July and their second proposal just two weeks ago.”
