Cranston Mayor Hopkins Accuses Council Democrats of Partisan Pettiness
CRANSTON – Mayor Kenneth J. Hopkins has called on City Council Democrats to stop the “political pettiness and revenue recklessness” in their review of his no tax increase budget he proposed on April 1st.
“After several weeks of hearings and review of my proposed budget for the next fiscal year, the Democrat majority is poised to adopt a budget that will surely lead to a budget shortfall and a structural deficit for the following fiscal year.” He said, “Their indiscriminate increases of certain departmental revenue projections and cuts in snow removal, public works and fire department public safety requirements are unrealistic and likely unachievable.”
Hopkins said in designing a 2024-2025 city and school budget he started with two premises. “First, I proposed a $323 million budget that did not increase any reliance on a tax increase from Cranston taxpayers over what we collected this year.” He said the second prong of his budget preparation was to eliminate any reliance on ARPA funds from the federal government that will no longer be available thus eliminating any budget gaps that can result in a structural deficit. ARPA funds come from the American Rescue Plan Act adopted by Congress after the covid pandemic.
Hopkins said beyond the dangerous strategy of over inflating revenues, the Democrats are being vindictive to his budget for the mayor’s office. “We have over 600 city employees, not counting school personnel. After their lengthy hearings and detailed questioning of my department heads, the only position they chose to eliminate in the entire city was an assistant position in my office,” said Hopkins.
The mayor said the Democratic pettiness reared its partisan head one night after the city solicitor referred to the Rhode Island State Police, the possible extortionist tactics used to remove Democratic Councilwoman Aniece Germain from her Ward 2 seat. “The removal of the staff position in my office is direct payback by the Council President and mayoral candidate Robert Ferri as a sign of intimidation to my administration.”
“It is more than a coincidence that the day after the City Solicitor referred the Germain matter to the State Police that the Democrats engaged in pure political pettiness to hurt my ability to serve my constituents with proper staffing in my office,” said the mayor. “Not one other position was up for elimination by them but “out of a $323 million budget they felt compelled to try and save $448,000 as political payback to me.”
Hopkins said the position in the mayor’s office is currently vacant in part to save money but also because he feared the Council Democrats would try and cut the position. “We have a person prepared to leave their current job to join my staff.” He said, “In fairness, I could not assure the person that the Democrats would not play games and the person could be out of a job on July 1st. Up until now, the workload in the mayor’s office have been distributed amongst existing personnel. This position would have enabled the city to take further advantage of grant opportunities and responsiveness to constituent concerns.”
Hopkins said he will look closely into using his line-item veto authority if the budget passes with current changes being discussed. “I proposed an austere no tax increase budget that would be $2.3 million dollars less than the current fiscal year.”
The Democratic majority questioned some of the administration’s revenue projections in certain departments. “Yet, they did not choose to make any adjustments to our projections but double downed and made some unrealistic revenue increases to serve their political agenda.”
Hopkins said that the Democratic leadership rushed to fill the Ward 2 council seat to ensure their ability to override any budget veto he exercises. “If the budget remains unchanged with their dangerous assumptions, the taxpayers will now be in jeopardy of public safety with reductions in snow removal and traffic safety.”
