To the Editor,
Last week the Warwick City Council passed a zero tax increase budget that provides direct services and investments to the residents of our City. With countless individuals and businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of the council and the Mayor believed this was a year to hold the line on taxes while leveraging the American Rescue Act funds.
While passing a zero tax increase, we still were able to make significant investments in services for our residents. We made a $6.5 million lease purchase agreement for the purchase of equipment and vehicles for the City's Public Works, Fire, and Police Departments, as well as for the Warwick Public Library. Additionally, we have developed clear purchasing timelines for equipment and vehicles going forward.
We are using millions of dollars of funds from the American Rescue Act to upgrade our water and sewer infrastructure, allowing us to invest our tax dollars in other parts of our budget without adding additional debt through a new bond. The City's roadway project, which was passed last year, is already showing positive results. More and more roads are being paved across the City after we took advantage of historically low interest rates by working with the RI Infrastructure Bank to develop a plan that secured over $10 million in funding to repave our roads. This plan was reflected in the budget that passed last week as the asphalt budget line item was $200,000 this year. Just a few years ago this line item was funded at $4 million. The savings from this planning allowed us to allocate funds in other parts of the budget and contributed to the passing of the no tax increase budget.
These are just some of the critical long-term investments reflected in the budget. I would like to thank my colleagues on the council and the Mayor for working together to make our City even stronger.
Steve McAllister
President Warwick City Council
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June 03, 2021 at 12:00PM
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Long-term investments in Warwick - Warwick Beacon
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