What's Next After Voters OK'D The $250 Million Ballot Question?

SMITHFIELD, RI—Rhode Island voters passed the $250 million school construction ballot question by a landslide on Tuesday. Unofficial results, according to the state Board of Elections, show 269,774 (or 76.6 percent of the voters) said yes on Question 1, and 82,212 (or 23.4 percent) rejected it.

But what happens next? Several communities, like Smithfield, East Providence, and North Kingstown, also passed local school construction ballot questions Tuesday. Are they first in line? What happens to the cities and towns that don't have a project on the drawing table?

Megan Geoghegan, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, said indeed the state has already approved the school construction projects in East Providence, North Kingstown and Smithfield and in two other communities. Voters on Tuesday also passed all those local ballot questions.

"The communities with local bond questions that have already received Council approval are East Providence, Jamestown, North Kingstown, Smithfield, and Warwick," she said. "Any other communities still need to go through the approval process."

The state has drawn up a timeline to guide the communities through the process, she said.

"Boiled down, they file a letter of intent that gives an overview of what they’re hoping to do and shows their commitment to following our guidelines. Then they file a Stage I application, which includes support from both the city and schools, their capital improvement plan, a budget analysis and details about why the work is needed. That phase is approved by the School Building Authority at RIDE. In Stage II, they go into more detail, including everything from an architectural feasibility study and traffic plans to financing plans and a project timeline."

Then there's one more step.

"After going through those steps, projects are approved by the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education," she said.

"This is a big first step," said Evan England, spokesman for Treasurer Seth Magaziner. But it's by no means too late for cities and towns that don't have projects ready to go before the public.

"Communities that didn’t have local bond measures are eligible," he said. "The bond will be issued over time so there’s plenty of time for any city or town to get the process started and see the benefits on this effort. We encourage them every community to start having that discussion because the challenges are only getting more expensive to address with each year that passes."

England said the state has always handled the school construction approvals. The difference, due to the bond, is that communities can get extra money from the state in bonus incentives. According to England, there are four incentives, each worth an extra five percent from the state. The incentives can add up, he said, so "communities can increase the state’s share of project costs by as much as 20 percent," if they qualify for all four bonuses. Each bonus is worth five percent.

+5% for “Warm, Safe and Dry” Projects

+5% for School Safety & Security

+5% for “Newer and Fewer” Projects

+5% for Educational Enhancement (early childhood or career & technical)

Also, all the projects will not necessarily end up as local ballot questions, he said.

"The reason communities may place questions on their own ballots is to authorize the community to borrow for their share of the project," he said. "Some communities may already have borrowing capacity that voters have authorized in the past, some communities may choose to vote on the borrowing once they know they have a project ready to go."

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