In an effort to close a $10 million budget shortfall, Cranston Mayor Ken Hopkins presented a spending plan to the city council on Wednesday that includes a significant tax increase.
The $352.7 million budget package would raise property taxes by 7.4%. Because the proposed budget exceeds the state’s 4% cap on property tax increases, it would require approval first by the City Council and then by the General Assembly.
If the higher tax is levied, the average Cranston tax bill would increase by about $500, according to Hopkins.
Hopkins says the tax hike can primarily be blamed on the city’s former finance director, who Hopkins says crafted irresponsible budgets in the past two fiscal years.
“They were wrong in ways that are hard to explain,” Hopkins told the City Council. “Interest income was miscalculated. Debt service payments were entered incorrectly. That is not responsible financial management. The damage those numbers caused is what this budget is now trying to correct.”
While Hopkins took members of the Cranston City Council to task for not properly vetting past budget proposals, he also held himself accountable for not doing his due diligence.
“I trusted my finance director,” said Hopkins. “I presented my last two budgets with confidence because I believed I had the right information. But I should have pushed harder and asked tougher questions. That’s on me.”
In addition to raising taxes, the budget package would eliminate dozens of municipal jobs across many departments. It’s not yet clear how many of those roles are currently vacant and would go unfilled, or if it would require layoffs.
Hopkins says 17 city employees have accepted buyouts or early retirement packages the city offered when it learned it was running a multimillion-dollar deficit.
The Cranston City Council has a month to review the spending plan, which must be approved by May 15.
