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patientan, I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to say there. But another thing is that a city wont be allowed by the court to bankrupt until it has exhausted it's ability to raise tax revenue. Warwick is far from there. And if that 3500 dollar tax bill on your average home becomes 4375 that is a 25% tax increase and for that homeowner, that's $72/month additional.

I believe that of Warwick's 300 million budget, about 230 million is property tax (both residential and commercial). That hypothetical tax increase would add 57 million to the budget. How many years would that cover the OPEB and Pension and other cost increases? How many people would move out? (I would) Would home prices and values drop as a result of Warwick getting excessively taxed, or would most just pay that $72 bucks more a month?

Will they hike taxes to cover these issues costs, and what will the voters and residents do and what effect would that have on Warwick's economy and business situation?

This is the real conversation, because the biggest costs are contractual and inescapable. They have to be covered and taxes are the ONLY source to cover them.

All that being said, how does that affect the way we do business? Do the voters finally pay some attention? Most of the voters are starting from ZERO on understanding how the city works, you know, and simply vote based on a presidential issue or whatever party they're in the habit of, or they saw a name someplace on a sign, or maybe they say some positive press in the Beacon on Avedisian for example and that's good enough for them gotta get back to that barbecue/football game/you name it.

Even if 25% higher property tax (and more sewer bills, pay as you throw trash, etc) DOES wake them up, the vast majority of Warwick voters are unable to bring themselves up to speed enough to effect real improvement in the political class. The dominant democrat party will just put up new names, and those new names will spew some pre-planned slogans about "fixing this mess once and for all", and as Sonny and Cher once sang "the beat goes on".

So this boils down to "will the inevitable tax increases reduce the desirability of Warwick", and more neighborhoods become rentals, high turnover, and the other issues and will that reduce values which would require EVEN MORE tax hikes into a "death spiral"? If that even starts to happen, I have a nice ReMax magnet on my fridge - problem solved.