CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. -- The City Council, by a 4-1 margin, approved on Monday night Mayor James A. Diossa's first budget since he was elected to the city's highest administrative post in December.
The new $16.6-million budget will go into effect July 1. Its passage shows that the state's youngest mayor, at 27, is gaining political momentum in the state's poorest city, which recently emerged from federal bankruptcy and state receivership.
The budget is about $300,000 less than permitted under the five-year plan for fiscal recovery that the federal bankruptcy court approved in September.
Since the City Council's powers were restored in April, three councilors -- President William Benson Jr., Eunice De La Hoz and Pat J. Szlastha -- had voted against several of Diossa's proposed initiatives, but that changed with the new budget. De La Hoz and Szlastha joined with Robert Ferri and Steven F. Corrales and endorsed the spending plan. Benson was the sole dissenter.
"I want to thank the members of the City Council for working with me to pass a responsible budget that sends a clear message to the entire state: The City of Central Falls is moving forward,'' said Diossa in a statement.