Warwick's fiscal crisis has arrived!
Warwick, May 21, 2025
City and school spending over the last five years has increased over $60 million. Shockingly, that is over 250 percent greater than any other same period, as spending has never been greater than $24 million in the last twenty years. See the attached chart for details.
This spending does not include the millions of new tax dollars that will be required to bail out the school system for overspending $15 million in the salary budget for the past two years. A special state commission has taken over the school department finances and will decide that in the coming months. A supplemental tax increase could be part of the solution and hit taxpayers by the end of the summer.
The school committee has been a total failure in controlling costs and will not take any accountability for this overspending, ignoring it as if it does not exist and refusing to cut spending to balance the budget. Now, along with the teachers' union, they are using the same old tactic of threatening to cut kids' programs such as school sports to blackmail city officials into pouring millions more into the annual school budget.
On the city side, employee salaries and benefits are increasing at an unsustainable rate. City debt will soon eclipse $1.3 BILLION. Warwick's credit rating will be slashed, requiring millions more in borrowing costs, and the city will be $200 million over its borrowing limit with no room for future borrowing.
We heard at the budget hearing that it will cost taxpayers approximately $13.5 million a year for at least the next twenty years just to pay off the construction debt on the two new high schools. That is the equivalent of one and a half maximum tax increases. That cost does not include any new taxes for continued city and school annual operational costs.
This will result in hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in cumulative new property taxes in the next three years for every homeowner and small business in the city.
A maximum tax increase produces approximately $9 million in additional revenue each year. Warwick has been on an unsustainable spending spree, averaging over $12 million a year in spending over the last five years. All this spending does not factor in the tens of millions of federal COVID dollars that the city and schools have also used to pay for operational expenses that now will need to be paid by increased property taxes.
Many will not be able to afford these tax increases, especially seniors on a fixed income. They will be forced to move out of the city, and the Warwick School Committee, most of the City Council, and the Warwick Teachers' Union do not care.
Why This Matters
Every dollar the city spends ultimately comes from the taxpayers. When spending grows faster than revenues year after year, property tax increases become the predictable result rather than the exception.
Warwick can control costs through better long-term planning, responsible budgeting, greater accountability, and policies that put taxpayers first. The goal should be to reduce spending where possible, improve efficiency, and keep Warwick affordable for the people who call it home.
See My Plan for Better Government, Lower Costs & a Stronger Warwick