AG 95-02.

Case DateJanuary 11, 1995
CourtRhode Island
Rhode Island Attorney General Opinions 1995. AG 95-02. OFFICIAL OPINION 95-02January 11, 1995R. Gary ClarkChair Central Falls Review Commission c/o Division of Planning One Capitol Hill Providence, Rhode Island 02908 Dear Mr. Clark: I write in response to your request for an advisory opinion concerning the respective financial responsibilities of the State of Rhode Island ("State") and the Central Falls School District ("District") concerning certain "capital investments" necessary for repairs which were and are necessary to the physical plants comprising the Central Falls Schools. You state in your letter that neither the State nor the City of Central Falls ("City") had provided monies in their budgets for such repairs. In 1991, the General Assembly established the Central Falls Review Commission (the "Commission") in accordance with the terms of R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 45-52.1-1 et. seq. The State Commission was established to "assist a unit of local government in a financial emergency and to remedy this emergency by requiring prudent fiscal management". R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-52.1-1. In order to address the fiscal emergency, the legislature vested the Commission with the following powers relevant to the school system: To analyze all factors contributing to the city's financial condition and advise the mayor and the city council thereon; To assist the city to implement the recommendations of the Commission; To approve, modify or disapprove any expenditure of funds that are available for other purposes as a result of the operation and full financing of public education in the city by the state; To review and advise on the annual operating capital budgets, and on any single expenditure of five thousand dollars ($5,000) or more; To approve, modify or disapprove any action that would incur short or long term debt. R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-52.1-4. The General Assembly also provided, in another law - Public Law 1991, Chapter 312 - that the Central Falls schools will be operated in 1992 on $12,500,000 dollars of City and State appropriations. The State was to provide a total of $10,625,000 to the Central Falls schools; the City was to contribute $1,900,000 as its share of educational costs. More importantly, however, that public law provided that the State would "assume administrative control of the school system" beginning on July 1, 1991. A...

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