By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

BURRILLVILLE — When Gov. Donald L. Carcieri recently unveiled his proposed mid-year state supplemental budget package calling for a $153.89 million cut in local aid, the Town of Burrillville stood to lose $782,597.

But town officials say when you do the math and add it up, the governor’s budget eliminating millions of dollars in promised state aid halfway through the year shows Burrillville getting walloped with a hit of more than $1 million.
Governor Carcieri is proposing to fill a $357 million deficit between now and the end of June largely at the expense of cities and towns like Burrillville and Glocester, which stand to lose millions in state aid (under Carcieri’s plan, Glocester would lose $743,538).
The budget proposal would take away all of the $55.1 million in general revenue sharing that had been earmarked to be divvied up among the municipalities. It would also reduce by $4.21 million state aid for the phase-out of the motor-vehicle excise tax. Another $5.8 million in education aid for professional development would be cut, as would $4.3 million in state aid for school construction.
Burrillville Town Manager Michael C. Wood says he recently reviewed a chart which shows the reductions in local aid by community under the governor’s plan, and while Burrillville’s losses in general revenue sharing, permanent school fund and education aid for professional development does, in fact, total $782,597, the impact is even greater when you take into account that the town is also getting hit with a $67,634 cut in state aid for the phase-out of the motor vehicle excise tax; $173,789 in library construction aid (less reimbursement in state aid earmarked for the new Jesse M. Smith Memorial Library); and $565,239 less in education aid.
“I don’t think anyone has any doubts the state has some serious problems and that in order to balance out the budget there has to be concessions,” Wood said in reaction to the governor’s proposal. “While I agree with it conceptually and realize it has to be done, I don’t like it. The reality is that the state has to start cleaning up its act.”
Cities and towns build budgets on stable revenue sources and projected state aid and what’s happening now in Rhode Island has got municipal and school leaders throughout the state worried. Strained by a loss of tax revenue as unemployment worsens and real-estate values plummet, the state faces its biggest budget shortfall in 17 years and is forecasting a $357-million budget deficit for the fiscal year to June 30.
That is projected to swell to $486 million in the 12 months from July 1, with lawmakers predicting the red ink will grow by about $80 million a year to reach a $770 million deficit in 2012 unless new revenue sources are found.
Those problems are impacting cities and towns where schools are bracing for cuts and municipal leaders are being asked to tighten their belts.
As Wood explained at a pre-budget season meeting with town and school officials last month, Burrillville’s has its own problems. The town’s overall debt service — the series of payments of interest and principal required on a debt over a given period of time – is more than $32 million as of June 30, 2008. The school’s unfunded liability as of June 30 stands at more than $1 million and tax revenue from the Ocean State Power plant, which for years has funded the town’s annual capital improvement program, is due to terminate in 2012.
On the school side, there are potential increases that could impact the fiscal 2010 and 20011 budgets and compound an already existing $298,000 school deficit, including increases for certified and non-certified retirements, public utilities, transportation, special education tuition and heating oil.
This year, the town will be negotiating contracts with the police and municipal employees. In the meantime, the teachers contract has still not been settled. At the pre-budget season meeting, Wood said it is imperative school officials not “acquiesce” to school teachers wage demands without comparable concessions.
He addressed that situation again Monday, saying the teachers “have to get real.” 
“They cannot continue to lobby for money that simply isn’t there,” Wood said. Burrillville School Superintendent Steven Welford said while the governor’s supplemental budget certainly has an impact on the district, the worse news for the schools is what comes next year in terms of the school budget and state education aid.
“I just don’t see any way the state can maintain the same level of state aid next year,” said Welford, adding he’s heard estimates that education aid could be cut next year by 3 to 5 percent. That, he said, could mean a $420,000 to $700,000 hit to the district.
As for the governor’s supplemental budget, Welford said the proposal to cut $5.8 million in education aid for professional development for teachers, will mean $100,000 worth of professional development activities “we can’t do in Burrillville.”
In what he called an effort to take some of the sting out of the cuts, Carcieri is proposing a raft of legislation aimed at helping municipalities absorb the increases. Among these are statewide programs for school busing and school lunches that will eventually be mandatory for all districts once their current transportation and food service contracts expire, an end to minimum manning provisions for municipal police and fire departments in contracts and arbitrations, repealing the requirement that school nurses be certified as teachers, establish management rights for school committees that remove issues deemed not appropriate for collective bargaining from contract negotiations, eliminate work to rule actions by teacher unions during labor disputes.
The supplemental budget also proposes eliminating cost of living increases in pension benefits at the state and local level and increases the minimum retirement age to 59 for any teacher or other public employee who does not retire by April 1.
“Some of the things in his budget are interesting, but this could really put the schools in a nightmare situation,” said Welford, adding there are 18 teachers district-wide who would qualify under this scenario. Having that many teachers opting to retire by April 1 would have a “major impact on the school system,” Welford said.
“While I understand the reasoning (behind the supplemental budget), I don’t agree with the methodology,” he said. “There are significant institutional changes that need to be made and until those issues are addressed I don’t know how we’re going to weather the storm.”