NEW: RISC Praises Taveras for Confronting City’s Fiscal Crisis
Friday, February 03, 2012
The Rhode Island Statewide Coalition (RISC) is commending Providence Mayor Angel Taveras for confronting the widening fiscal crisis facing Providence and for the plan of action he announced Thursday.
Mayor Taveras announced that he will not borrow more funds to close an immediate $22.5 million dollar deficit; that he would appeal a Superior Court Judge’s ruling blocking the city from attaining millions in cost savings by moving police and firefighter retirees off Blue Cross health insurance coverage to Medicare at age 65; and that he will pursue legal authority for the city to suspend retirees’ COLA’s, many being 5-6% compounded COLA’s doled out to hundreds of public safety retirees in the 1990’s.
“Mayor Taveras inherited years of shamefully irresponsible retirement deals handed out from Providence City Hall,” said RISC Executive Director Harriet Lloyd. “We commend the Mayor in demanding an end to the years of windfall retirements which have not only been an outrageous abuse of the system but have played a large role in bringing the city to the brink of collapse.”
Lloyd said as a citizens’ taxpayer advocacy group, RISC urges all Rhode Islanders to take notice of what is unfolding in Providence.
“Business owners and citizen taxpayers in every community have much at stake in what happens now to Rhode Island’s capital city,” Lloyd continued.
“The Mayor is right to now leave no stone unturned in his attempt to reverse the city’s dangerous course and get control, once and for all, of the city’s outrageous and unsustainable retirement system.”
RISC also supports the plan by Taveras to challenge a Superior Court decision blocking the city from a crucial cost savings move to switch public safety retirees’ health coverage to Medicare, and pressure Brown University and other private colleges and non-profits to increase their contributions to the city at this perilous time.
