Warwick council moves to ask state to create school budget commission amid multimillion-dollar shortfall

The Warwick City Council voted to send PCR 20-25 — a request that the Rhode Island General Assembly enact legislation creating a Warwick Public Schools Budget Commission — after presentations from the mayor, state audit officials and the chair of the school committee and more than two hours of council debate and public comment.

The measure asks the state to authorize a temporary budget commission to help the city and school department develop and implement a corrective action and multi‑year amortization plan in response to the school system’s projected operating shortfall. “They have had a $9,000,000 deficit in their 2025 operating budget,” Mayor Frank Piccozzi told the council, adding the gap could raise borrowing costs because of the city’s pending bond sales.

Why it matters: City officials said the projected deficit for fiscal 2025, taken together with an unresolved operating shortfall from 2024, could endanger Warwick’s credit rating and increase interest costs on roughly $300 million in planned bond sales tied in part to school construction. State Auditor General David Bergantino told the council that the projected shortfall and an earlier 2024 operating…