Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
[Introductory paragraph: On September 29, 2026, the East Providence City Council held a budget workshop to review the proposed FY2027 budget. Presentations were made by Mayor DeSilva, School Superintendent Dr. Robert Perry, Department of Public Works Director Dan Borges, Police Department Chief, and Fire Department Chief. No votes were taken; the workshop was for discussion only. Public comments were received from one resident.]
Coming to conclusions totally with just the first meeting. We'll have two or three, or whatever we need to get this work done. So the first order of business will be the mayor and his ministration will present their budget. So the first order of business will be the uh mayor and this administration will present their budget, then uh upon completion of that, I will open it up to uh public hearing, and folks can make uh comments or ask questions, and then there will be comments and questions from council members. So at this time, I would invite uh Mayor DeSilva to please present your budget no testing, testing. Uh, there we go. Better. Thank you, uh, council president, um Rodericks, Vice President Rigo, Councilman Fogarty, Councilwoman Souza, and uh all of the department has that are here today. Uh the budget is a document that dictates or outlines the city's priorities. And this budget was put together uh very carefully with numerous uh meetings with uh various departments to see if we can craft a budget uh that was going to still be able to provide the level of services that our residents have come to be accustomed to and deserve, while also keeping cost factors in check and keeping our taxpayers in mind. When we looked at the budget, we found that there were several items that are key budget drivers that drive the increases. And uh the first one, of course, is debt service. We see a 1.7 percent increase in this year's budget over last year. Health care costs have increased a staggering 16 percent. Part of that uh is multifactored. The rates from our health care provider has gone up eight percent. And there are multiple employees who have come on board who are taking family plans, so that increases the cost, as opposed to some employees who were on their spouses' plans and were not taking health care. Pension fund contributions to the police and fire have gone up 1.4 percent. School support funding has gone up 4%, and labor costs have gone up 4.8 percent. It's important to know that our unions have taken zero percent increases in prior fiscal years to help us put together a balanced budget, and we thank uh the members of those unions who have taken zero percent. Uh however, with that being said, uh now we're coming into the years of the contract where they're getting their increases. So that affects the uh overall. If you look at debt service, uh we hear a lot of conversation about debt service, and the community on two occasions voted to borrow uh significant funds to build a beautiful East Province High School, uh, an incredible Martin Middle School, and a still in construction pre-K program that will be the envy of the entire state. Uh but that comes at a cost. Uh, when people vote for a bond, you're authorizing the city to borrow, similar to how when you are building a home and you take out a mortgage. When you take out that mortgage, you then have to make your mortgage payments. And so the debt service right now is $18.1 million dollars total in the budget. Uh key takeaways from that is that 86% of that is school-related debt service, and we see a $306,000 increase in this year's budget. On the health care costs, our total health care cost of $6.96 million, and we see a an increase of $966,000. Uh yeah. So this kind of highlights uh health insurance net of the employees co-share life and one second, just for the record, identify yourself in title for those that don't know. That's okay for people who don't know. Thank you. Uh of the increase that the mayor just spoke about the 966,000, uh, about 919,000 pertains to general health insurance and minor increases in both life and dental. There is a cost sharing offset, of course. Um, our employees do have a co-share, and so that amounts to 746,000 dollars of uh co-share that adjusts that a number. On uh pension contributions annually, uh we're up to 13.8 million dollars in police and fire pension contributions. Uh we broke it out uh by the amount, even though it's one unified pension system.