State must take more active role in reforming municipal finances

MANY VOICES BUT NOT SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS: While public officials, including, from left, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, North Providence Mayor Charles A. Lombardi, General Treasurer Seth Magaziner and Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung have talked about municipal unfunded liabilities for retirement benefits, there still has not been enough of an effort to put city and town finances on a sustainable path. / PBN ILLUSTRATION/LISA LAGRECA
MANY VOICES BUT NOT SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS: While public officials, including, from left, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, North Providence Mayor Charles A. Lombardi, General Treasurer Seth Magaziner and Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung have talked about municipal unfunded liabilities for retirement benefits, there still has not been enough of an effort to put city and town finances on a sustainable path. / PBN ILLUSTRATION/LISA LAGRECA

If the state’s public officials want to make a real difference in Rhode Island’s future, they should spend less time on getting to the bottom of the 38 Studios mess and more, a lot more, on the looming public-finance meltdown over unfunded liabilities for local pensions and other post-employment benefits (also known as OPEBs). As

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