Coventry's June 10 Budget Referendum: What To Know

COVENTRY, RI — Coventry's all-day budget referendum is fast approaching. Next week, voters will go to the polls to approve or reject the $111 million budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

The all-day referendum will be held June 10. The financial town meeting will be held via Zoom at 7 p.m. on June 8.

Voters did not approve a budget in June 2020, so the town has been operating under the same amounts approved by voters in 2019. To balance the budget and make up for rising costs, service cuts had to be made, the town said.

"Throughout the COVID 19 emergency the budget was challenged with new extraordinary expenses while off-setting costs with changes in reduced services and operations associated with public safety measures," town officials said in a statement. "The proposed budget provides a lean and modest return to prior service levels and operations in most areas."

The $111,763,164 budget includes funding for both town services and the school department, broken down as follows:

Municipal services

• Police department, public works, library, parks and recreation, human services, other government departments
• $31.2 million
• Funded by taxes, federal and state aid

School department

• $48.6 million from tax revenues
• $26.7 million from state aid
• Total budget: $75.4 million

Bond payments (principal and interest)

• $5.1 million from taxes, interest earnings and state aid

There will be five voting polling places on June 10, one in each district.

• District 1: St. Francis Church, 132 Peckham Lane
• District 2: Town Hall council chambers, 1670 Flat River Rd.
• District 3: Club Jogues, 184 Boston St.
• District 4: Coventry Senior Center, 40 Wood St.
• District 5: Coventry High School, 40 Reservoir Rd.

Anyone with questions about the budget or town services can reach out to Town Manager Ben Marchant at 401-822-9185 or bmarchant@coventryri.org.