Taveras to give State of City speech

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Providence Mayor Angel Taveras will deliver his annual State of the City address on Monday night - and he's not likely to describe it as "strong."

Rhode Island's capital city is facing a $22.5 million deficit this fiscal year, which ends June 30, and an unsustainable burden to pay for $2 billion in unfunded employee retirement benefits. Taveras warned on Feb. 2 the city is on "the brink of bankruptcy."

• Watch speech live at 7 p.m.

Taveras will deliver the address in the City Council chamber at City Hall, and his speech will be streamed live on WPRI.com. An aide to the mayor summed up his message as "Providence in peril." Yet state officials are deeply concerend

Taveras, a first-term Democrat who took office 13 months ago, has spent his first year in office struggling to close a $110 million structural budget deficit he inherited from his predecessors, David Cicilline and Buddy Cianci.

Steps the mayor has taken so far to deal with the issue included sending termination notices to all the city's teachers (most of which were later rescinded); negotiating concessions with all four of the city's labor unions; imposing a major tax increase on homeowners and businesses; and

The Taveras administration is now focused on two issues: negotiating $7.1 million in new voluntary annual payments from major tax-exempt institutions including Brown University and the hospitals; and forcing retirees to accept major reductions in their pension benefits, some of which grow by 5% to 6% per year compounded.

But city officials acknowledged over the weekend that even if they do get $7.1 million from the tax-exempts, they are running out of options to close the remaining $15 million shortfall projected for this year. At the same time, the mismatched timing of tax bills and city spending has Providence on track to run out of cash in June.

Ted Nesi ( tnesi@wpri.com ) covers politics and the economy for WPRI.com and writes the Nesi's Notes blog . Follow him on Twitter: @tednesi