The Providence City Council Committee on Finance Saturday voted to send a reduced FY2020 city budget of $770M for vote and passage to the full Council.

A majority of the Council’s Committee on Finance agreed to put forth a tax levy ordinance that brings back a homestead exemption (in addition to other exemptions like senior, widow, veteran, etc.) The Committee has proposed a flat tax rate of $24.56/per thousand along with a homestead exemption of 40%. Below is the formula to find your proposed tax rate:

(Assessed Property Value – 40%) x $24.56 ÷1,000 = FY2020 Property Tax Bill

The Committee on Finance felt it important to share with the community a breakdown of the changes they have made to the Mayor’s originally proposed budget:

Revenue Increases

• $55,000.00 in additional dumpster fees
• $250,000.00 in additional overnight parking permitting fees
• $200,000.00 in Providence Place Mall PILOT payment

Total: $505,000.00

Spending Increases

• $82,500.00 for Chief Financial Officer (Mayor’s Office)
• $160,000.00 for four additional laborers in the highway division of the Department of Public Works
• $532,617.00 to make 10 temporary Assistant Recreation Directors permanent positions to provide wrap-around services that our students desperately need
• $35,772.00 for an additional clerk in the Municipal Court
• $3,705.00 for maintenance contracts in the City Clerk Departments

Total: $814.594.00

Spending Decreases

• $25,000.00 removed for non-contractual pay increases in the Law Department
• $82,500.00 was transferred to the Mayor’s office in support of the chief financial officer position, so the funds were removed from the Finance Department
• $7,609.00 removed for the non-contractual pay increase to the city controller
• $17,258.00 removed for the non-contractual pay increases for the city collector, deputy city collector, and assistant city collector
• $5,250.00 removed the non-contractual pay increase to the deputy assessor
• $171,586.00 removed the non-contractual increases to union and non-union members in the IT Department
• $400,000.00 removed funding for nine police officers that could not be hired due to lack of a Police Academy in FY2020
• $279,348.00 removed from the fire chief salary and DAC salary (positions are vacant)
• $101,467.00 removed salary of director and new workforce development associate (both vacant)
• $74,201.00 removed new assistant chief engineer position
• $291,000.00 decrease in seasonal salaries as a result of hiring ten full-time assistant recreation center director
• $8,200.00 removed the non-contractual increase to the director in the Human Relations Commission
• $2,758.00 removed the non-contractual pay increase for the deputy director in Arts Culture and Tourism
• $29,530.00 removed non-contractual increases in salaries in the City Council
• $50,847.00 removed salary of a stenographic reporter (vacant)
• $16,835.00 funded only 9-months of auditor school

Salary Review Commission Decreases

• $20,016.00 removed due to not being approved by the Salary Review Commission (Finance Director)
• $39,284.00 removed due to not being approved by the Salary Review Commission (Commissioner of Public Safety)

Operational and Technical Decreases

• $200,000.00 removed from the police department for training facility, and travel/training expenses
• $100,000.00 removed from the fire department for training academy (not planned)
• $450,000.00 was removed to keep advertisements, rentals, and contractual services level funded for the Arts Culture and Tourism department (they are funded at $895K in FY2020 up by $10K from FY2019)
• $75,000 was removed to keep level funding for consultants in the Planning Department (last year they only spent $65K or $200K on consultants)
• $160,000.00 was removed to keep building repairs level funded in the Public Property Department ($500K still available, plus an additional $250K for schools)
• $17,500.00 was removed to keep training and miscellaneous materials level funded in the City Council
• $60,000.00 decreased in miscellaneous expenses in the City Archives
• $94,5000.00 transferred expenses for five Speed Alert Radar Messages to the master lease
• $80,016.00 transferred expenses for FATS Simulator to the master lease
• $84,489.00 will be removed due to payroll tax associated with the salary decreases
• $415,775.00 will be removed from the budget due to attrition (in FY2019 there was over $1M in vacancies in the budget)

Total: -$3,534,440.00

The City Council will hold special meetings on Wednesday, July 3, 2019, at 4:30 PM, where the budget will receive its first passage from the Council. Once passed, the second and final vote will take place on Tuesday, July 9, 2019 at a time to be determined.