By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — Picking up where it left off last Wednesday, the City Council plans to meet in a special session tonight at 5 p.m. at City Hall to discuss the proposed operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

At the May 20 City Council meeting, Mayor James E. Doyle submitted a proposed operating budget of approximately $177.6 million for the new fiscal year that begins on July 1. The budget is about $1.3 million higher than the current year's operating budget of $176.3 million, which ends on June 30.
If passed as submitted, the budget will require a property tax increase of almost 9.2 percent. The state Department of Revenue has approved the city's request to go over the state's 4.75 percent tax levy cap for the coming year only. City officials said the larger budget increase is necessary because of a projected loss of $5 million in state education aid and the fact that city residents were spared a supplemental tax increase in the current year's budget.
Council members indicated last week that they are likely to pare down the budget request, but nothing definitive was discussed.
Saying that councilors wanted more time to consider the budget, the City Council voted last week to table a decision. The Finance Committee had also not made any recommendation on the proposed budget, which was another factor in the delay.
Tonight, a Finance Committee meeting is scheduled at 4:30 p.m. preceding the special session. The public hearing on the proposed budget was held last week and is now considered to be closed, although there will be a public input period at tonight's session for those who sign up in advance to speak. Last week, only two residents commented on the budget proposal at the public hearing, both urging a reduction.
According to the City Clerk's office, any amendments that are made to the original budget proposal tonight will require another public hearing. The council could potentially vote to accept first passage of a budget, as amended, with a public hearing to be scheduled at a later date.
It is expected that the council will vote on the second and final passage of the budget at another special session, most likely held in the first week of June, prior to the next regular city council meeting on June 10.
Left out of the mix is the School Department's budget, for which it is too early to know the amount of state aid or other factors that might become available. As he traditionally does, Finance Director Ronald Wunschel has only budgeted for the known revenue in an amount of $94.6 million. Any additional revenue that could potentially come from the state or federal government or other sources won't be known until after June 30.
The School Committee last week voted to send to the city, in lieu of a budget, an information statement on the School Department's operating needs for FY10 totaling approximately $102.7 million. That is an increase of approximately 2.87 percent over last year's figure of $99.8 million.
School Committee Chairman David Coughlin noted that in past years, the School Department has submitted a budget that includes projected revenues and expenses along with the anticipated deficit. However, he said that since any revenue information won't be available until June 30, the committee felt it would be premature to do such forecasts.
Instead, Coughlin said the information that was provided to the city's Finance Director “is just a projection of the cost to adequately educate our 8,300 students for next year.”
 The figure of $102.7 million includes contracted salary increases for teachers and other school department staff. The teacher's contract, in particular, includes a 3 percent pay increase for the coming year of the contract, which expires on August 31, 2010.
At last week's budget hearing, Doyle and several councilors harshly criticized the teacher's union for what they said was an unwillingness to open up the contract and re-negotiate the terms in order to offer some concessions to the city in the current economic crunch. They cited concessions in wages and health care co-pays that came from the police and firefighters unions in their newly approved contracts.
However, in a letter dated May 19, one day prior to the last council meeting, Pawtucket Teachers Alliance President Charleen Christy had written a response to school attorney Stephen Robinson's earlier request that the contract be reopened.
Christy wrote that the Pawtucket Teachers Alliance is “acutely aware of the multi-million deficit currently facing the Pawtucket School Department.” She added, “We are willing to join with the Pawtucket School Committee and to discuss options available including reopening the collective bargaining agreement.”
In her letter, Christy also asked that Robinson to contact her about a time and date to hold these discussions.