Receiver to city: Financial ruin near

[The Northerner]

CENTRAL FALLS — The city’s financial problems are so profound that the only way to solve them is through a merger with Pawtucket or a regionalization of city services, the state-appointed receiver said in a report Thursday to the Carcieri administration.

“Central Falls, in my judgment, cannot remain a stand-alone community as it presently is, unless the state wants to subsidize this into the future,” said retired Superior Court judge Mark A. Pfeiffer, the man appointed by the state Department of Administration in July to run the city, with elected government officials in advisory roles, after those officials had earlier declared the city insolvent.

Even a merger with Pawtucket accompanied by some level of added state financial support wouldn’t be a complete fix for Central Falls’ budget, Pfeiffer said. The underlying, built-in problems in the city’s finances — with sizable operating budget deficits projected well into the future — require significantly changing how municipal employee contracts and retirement benefits are handled under state law, he said.

He said state action is needed to avert fiscal collapse in Central Falls.

Officials in Pawtucket and Central Falls Thursday were uncomfortable even discussing annexation, particularly without knowing the details of how it might work.

Read more: http://www.projo.com/news/content/CF_REPORT_12-17-10_O6LGEUG_v52.34c8f37.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. it's a tiny city of absentee slumlords & poor renters. duh.

[KamaAina]

2. Why don't they just fire all the public school teachers?

Oh, right. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. :eyes:

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. !

Rhode Island?