Mayor: North Providence running out of money
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North Providence Money Problems
North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi says the town is running out of money.NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I.—The town may not have enough money to pay employees what they are owed on June 12, North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi said Monday, citing the town’s $10-million deficit crisis.
“We don’t have the money. We needed the cash flow to get through this period. Now, what’s going to happen is that there’s going to be a delayed payroll period,“ Lombardi said.
Employees were informed about the potential for a “payless pay day”, Lombardi said. The town will pay as much as it can to each employee, he said.
“We’ve notified all of our union representatives,“ Lombardi said. “We’ve notified them in writing also because it wouldn’t be fair not to forewarn them they might not be paid. That’s not fair to them.“
The town of North Providence has more than 800 workers.
Lombardi said it all could have been avoided if the state Senate had agreed to his request for a supplemental tax hike of $1.50 per $1,000.
“We needed this help just for the cash flow,“ he said. “I don’t think that the Senate realized the magnitude of that denial.“
Donald Iannazzi, business manager of Laborers’ International Union Local 1033 said he guarantees that there will be no payless pay day.
He said the union and the town need to sit down and figure something out.
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Reader Reactions
Bottom line is ,get this man out of office, Although i live in north providence im embarrased to say so when asked. How uneducated this mayor sounds during interviews, lets get him out of this office.
Ok….thank god that I do not live in North Providence. Who is exactly going to have to “wait” for their pay…ummm…the Mayor…or how about the employees of the town hall…this just pisses me off…these are people who have familys who need their weekly or bi weekly checks. I bet Mr. Lombardi is going to get paid….Just my opinion. I think moving out of the state of RI is the best bet.
I don’t know how someone who just got himself a pay increase can sit there and say its not fair to the workers to not let them know there is no money left to pay them. As a tax payer I never heard of a supplemental tax just to have cash flow to get us through this period. So that means it goes away after. Or more of the same next year. As for union workers who are paid with tax payers money I say its not fair to us to keep raising taxes so you can have your medical paid and your spouses medical paid and ridiculous benifits that are just not realistic at this time. If you want to decrease the deficit it doesn’t take a genious to figure out that you have to CUT SPENDING. Cut hours and jobs that lord knows are not needed. Look at your city workers how are ABUSING their positions. You need to look within. This space isn’t big enough for me to say what I really want to. But in a nut shell my 9 year old niece can figure this out. Why can’t you Lombardi?
I think it may be too late to “sit down and figure something out” as Mr. Iannazzi stated. What’s going to happen, and you can take this to the bank, is that the taxpayers of North Providence are going to be hit with a massive, unprecedented tax hike. I’m sure glad that no one in my family lives in North Providence. If I did, I’d be absolutely irate!
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