All Pawtucket All The Time

Grebien to reject mayoral health benefits; calls on City Council, School Committee to follow

PAWTUCKET – Mayoral candidate Don Grebien announced today that if elected the first budget cuts in the Grebien administration would come straight from the top starting with him, by rejecting the more than $19,000 taxpayer-paid annual health benefits package slotted for the mayor in the new city budget.

Grebien said he would also call on the nine members of the City Council and the seven members of the School Committee who will take office in January to do the same, for potential total savings of around $300,000 the first year and more than $600,000 over a two-year term.

“Leadership starts from the top, and that’s where the cuts in the irresponsible red-ink city budget just passed by a majority of the current City Council need to start coming from,” said Grebien, himself a former City Councilor. “At a time when so many people in the city are struggling just to keep food on their table and a roof over their heads, it’s the least we can do.”

Grebien also said he would not tap the $10,000 set aside in the budget for the January 2011 mayoral inauguration event and instead use private donations to fund a more appropriately modest ceremony.

“This is not the time for pomp and circumstance. It’s time we set a new direction in Pawtucket by putting the taxpayers first, and in a Grebien administration that means starting at the top. And that will happen from Day One in my administration.”

Grebien said he would reject the city health coverage, which totals approximately $19,000 a year for family coverage plus dental insurance. Doubling that savings for the two years of a Grebien administration would save taxpayers more than $38,000, with the exact figure contingent in part on any future cost increases by the city’s health benefits insurer. He also said he would not accept the budgeted cash compensation, or “giveback,” of approximately $3,000 a year provided to those who reject city-paid health benefits, bringing the total savings to around $44,000 over two years.

Grebien said he would also call on the members of the City Council and School Committee, whose new officeholders will also be determined in the upcoming elections, to follow his lead and help the taxpayers by also foregoing the city-paid health package for two years. (Because the City Council and School Committee health packages have slightly different cost factors, and the extent of coverage that would be foregone will depend in part on the personal circumstances of the individuals elected, exact projections are not possible until after those office holders are determined.)

“I have no illusions these budget savings will cure the city’s current $9 million budget hole,” Grebien said. “But, minimally, they would save hundreds of thousands of dollars. It also sends a strong message that when the taxpayers are being asked to sacrifice, the city’s leaders need to pitch in too.”

Grebien said the more than $600,000 in savings over two years is the first initiative of the deficit reduction plan his campaign has been assembling and will be rolling out in the coming weeks.