Mayor Kenneth Hopkins’ proposed budget for the coming fiscal year would result in a slight tax increase on residential and commercial properties.

Hopkins presented his FY 2026 budget of $338.1 million at a special City Council meeting last Tuesday. According to city officials, the proposed budget, if approved unchanged by the council, would increase the residential tax rate from its current $13.61 per $1,000 of assessed value to $13.96. The commercial rate would rise from $20.42 to $20.94.

Overall, Hopkins’ spending package represents a 2.57% increase in the city’s tax levy – well below the state’s 4% levy limit for municipalities. A city or town’s tax levy is the total money it raises each year through local taxes.

A resident who owns a house assessed at $500,000 would see their tax bill rise $175, from $6,805 to $6,980.

“Today, the greatest fiscal challenge that we face is inadequate state funding of our schools – especially in light of unfunded state mandates,” Hopkins said.

He noted other fiscal challenges such as rising employee health-insurance and pension costs and the upcoming payments for the new schools and school facility improvements that voters approved recently, which he says amount to tens of millions of dollars.

Hopkins also said Cranston is no longer considered a distressed community, which is not entirely a good thing.

“This is a double-edged sword – we lost out on these significant funds because our city and its residents have experienced fiscal improvement,” he said.

According to Hopkins, this alone has resulted in a loss of more than $2.7 million in state aid.

Hopkins said the proposed budget will fund “no new costly initiatives,” with 55% of funding allocated to the schools and 45% to the rest of the municipality.

“I am not pleased to have to limit spending to our city departments, but I recognize the necessity of devoting all available resources to our schools and the children of this city,” Hopkins said.

In the FY26 budget, Hopkins proposed to increase the city’s contribution to the school department by nearly $2.3 million.

According to Hopkins, the $2.3 million is in addition to the $1 million the city allocated to the schools using one-time American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds disbursed by the federal government during the pandemic.

Hopkins said all of that funding is separate from state school aid, which he says will increase by about $5.1 million, from $75.6 million to $80.7 million.

Earlier this year, the School Department adopted its proposed budget, asking for about $189.4 million.

The department asked for a 4% increase in city dollars – a local appropriation of about $103 million after two years of level funding. Last year, the city appropriated roughly $99.2 million to the schools, according to budget documents.

With the additional $2.3 million, the total proposed city appropriation to the schools in the FY26 budget would be $101.5 million.

Accordingly, Hopkins says, the tax rate increase he is proposing is largely to support the schools.

In a statement sent from the School Department’s executive team, schools leaders thanked the mayor and taxpayers for their support of local schools – particularly recent construction bonds.

While they acknowledge that the mayor’s budget increased school funding, the amount is short of the $3.9 million requested by the schools and, “unfortunately, due to substantially inadequate funding over the past two fiscal years we must now make difficult decisions.”

No specifics were given, but the leadership team statement read, “significant cuts to programs will have to be considered. Due to fixed costs that the district has little control over, year over year, it is extremely difficult to manage a budget that has not been fully funded.”

Hopkins said that although the city’s finances have grown stronger and more sustainable over time, he hopes residents will recognize the need to fund the schools as much as possible.

Hopkins also referred to his plan to continue spending on infrastructure across the city, such as roads and bridges, the small business environment through neighborhoods such as Knightsville, long-term stormwater projects, recreational, fire-station and school building facilities.

The proposed budget will be heard by the City Council for any amendments and discussion through a series of budget hearings ahead of the deadline for any council modifications on May 15 and its final adoption on June 30.