A recent letter sent from Mayor Joseph Polisena to the Johnston delegation requesting level funding this year has been met with agreement by some local legislators.
The Sun Rise spoke with Reps. Deborah A. Fellela, Gregory Constantino and Stephen Ucci to gauge their feelings on the mayor’s message, which was sent out on May 12. In his brief address, Polisena told legislators that he put a freeze on spending as the coronavirus pandemic developed.
“As you know, any shortfall that you vote for may force a tax increase upon Johnston taxpayers, your constituents,” Polisena said. “The residents are counting on you to vote for level funding. As you know, many of our residents have lost their income and livelihood. I have made every effort to hold the line on property taxes – the taxpayers need your help.”
Polisena, in a follow-up interview with the Sun Rise, said that he heard positive feedback from Fellela and Ucci shortly after he sent the letter.
“[Ucci] thought it was a good letter … [Fellela] said she’ll fight for it,” Polisena said. “I know she’s on the same wavelength as I’m on … We get level-funded and we’re OK. I’m trying not to have a tax increase. If we don’t get any cuts at all, I’m working on not doing one this year. I can’t really say there’s not going to be one.”
Fellela said she is in lockstep with the mayor during her interview with the Sun Rise last week, saying that she and her fellow representatives caucused with leadership a few weeks ago and noted that level-funding cities and towns was a concern.
“They can’t just sustain everything and the speaker [Nicholas Mattiello] and majority leader [Dominick Ruggiero] were very open to it,” Fellela said.
Fellela also responded to a comment Polisena made in a May 8 story in the Sun Rise, noting that “any type of tax increase rests on their shoulders,” when referring to the Johnston delegation.
“I know he’s said that in the past, too, about tax increases,” Fellela said. “I hope there isn’t. I hope we don’t have to do that. I don’t want to see us have a tax increase and I hope that we can do as the mayor would like. I wouldn’t like to see a tax increase. Families are hurting now more than ever.”
Despite the state facing an $800 million budget shortfall, Constantino said he is “in total agreement” with the mayor’s remarks on level funding. He said the Finance Committee sent him a packet regarding the budget the day of his interview with the Sun Rise, but he knows that failing to level fund towns would result in immediate tax increases.
“Everything has to be on the table in order to solve these issues,” Constantino said. “Let’s look at it and see where we are and hopefully we get these businesses going in the state. We’ll see where it takes us. It’s an $800 million hole to patch up. They’re banking on the federal government sending state’s extra money, I don’t know if we’re going to see that.”
Constantino did recommend a gesture that could help save about $1 million – General Assembly members forfeiting their pay for the year.
“I don’t know if they’ll do that,” Constantino said, adding with a laugh, “I threw that out there and I was the skunk at the lawn party.”
Ucci said he raised quite a few of the points from Polisena’s letter during that aforementioned caucus, which happened only one day before the notice was sent. He said he told other legislators that the “last thing we can do is do anything that hurts cities and towns.”
“Johnston has been running very lean and add the burden because of these unforeseen circumstances,” Ucci said. “It’s really important that we preserve the funding that we give to cities and towns … We’re expecting relief with the money from the federal money. We’re hoping for another stimulus that affects lost tax revenue but we have to see what comes down from Washington.”
All three representatives – with decades of experience between them working on budgets – agreed that they’ve never seen a projection quite like this. Fellela said there’s never “been anything like this,” while Constantino said the budget is normally $200 million underwater going into discussions.
Ucci, who has been working on budgets for 16 years, has only every seen projected shortfalls half this grim.
“What people don’t understand is our budgeting process is very conservative and until you’re there a long time you start see that,” Ucci said. “We underestimate revenue ever year, we never have a budget deficit at the end of the year … We always end up with a surplus because of our conservative style of revenue estimation. That plus the rainy day fund.”
He said, if he had his way, he would like to see the state, as well as cities and towns, move to a two-year budget plan.
“That way you can kind of smooth things out and you’re not in this issue every year,” Ucci said. “Our revenue will come back, our economy will come back. That revenue that’s lost is lost.”
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