Happy Saturday! Here’s another edition of my weekend column for WPRI.com — as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to tnesi@wpri.com and follow me on Twitter , Threads and Facebook .

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Nesi's Notes

1. If you’re one of the 43,000 people who live in Woonsocket, the auditor general’s new report on municipal finances is a sobering read. More than half of the city’s local tax revenue goes to retiree benefits and debt payments. The city allocates less to its schools than any other self-funding community in Rhode Island. And after covering just those three costs, there is only about $5 million left over for everything else. So while the legacy of former Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt looms large over Woonsocket’s current race for mayor, the city’s ongoing budget strains arguably loom larger. During a debate on this week’s Newsmakers , incumbent Chris Beauchamp and challenger John Ward both ruled out filing for municipal bankruptcy in order to straighten out the city’s balance sheet. “It’s a terrible burden we have to bear,” Ward said, suggesting state lawmakers could help provide some relief. Beauchamp cited the weight of the city’s 2002 pension bond — an unmitigated disaster for taxpayers — and noted it will finally be paid off in eight years. “Bankruptcy,” the mayor said, “is not the answer.” This election marks a significant inflection point for Woonsocket politics, which Baldelli-Hunt dominated for the last decade, and the mayoral contest appears competitive. Ward placed first in the September preliminary election, garnering 55% of the vote to Beauchamp’s 40%. But barely 3,000 voters cast a ballot in the first round, whereas citywide turnout this November should be well over 10,000.

2. The reason I included the word “self-funding” in the item above: the state has been covering the full tab for schools in Central Falls since 1992 , with no contribution from local tax revenue.

3. Is it time for Rhode Island to call its first constitutional convention in four decades? Voters will decide that as Question 1 on Nov. 5, and early polls suggested a plurality of the electorate was open to the idea, though many knew little about the topic. The R.I. Democratic Party is using its institutional muscle to oppose Question 1, with groups such as the AFL-CIO and the ACLU funding a paid ad campaign against it. But not all Democrats agree. Providence Sen. Zam Zurier used his latest constituent newsletter to endorse the question as a way to contemplate bigger reforms to state government than the General Assembly has been willing to entertain. He also took a shot at opponents of the question, writing, “I find it sad that the opponents of Question 1 have such a low opinion of our ability as voters to approve beneficial proposals and to reject harmful ones. Indeed, many of the arguments they have presented on this issue through the media and campaign literature, with their incomplete and skewed information, similarly reflect a low opinion of us as voters.” (Voters would have the final say on any proposed constitutional amendments at the ballot box.) Another member of Providence’s state Senate delegation, Tiara Mack , pushed back at Zurier on Friday. “The working class family with two kids, barely making enough for groceries isn’t going to a public meeting at 4pm in March to tell the state to change the constitution to end the subminimum wage,” Mack wrote on social media. “I don’t believe con-con will be a tool for communities of color, poor people, and the working class to advance people-centered policy. Con-con is 1) dangerous 2) costly ($2-4M) and 3) Redundant.”

4. Every Democratic congressional incumbent in the region has a massive financial advantage over his Republican opponent. (And Jake Auchincloss doesn’t have one.) As you’d expect, that has led to a wide disparity in how much the campaigns are spending on the airwaves to run campaign TV ads. The Rhode Island Current’s Chris Shea broke down the numbers here .

5. The relationship between Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and city school leaders who report to Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green appears to be getting more acrimonious by the day. The latest evidence was this week’s war of words after Smiley got what he characterized as an ultimatum from Superintendent Javier Montañez to hand over $10 million or else see key academic programs cut . Education officials in turn blasted the mayor for going public about the dispute, arguing there was nothing new about their demands for more city money, an issue that has already landed the two sides in court. It’s notable that this is one area where Smiley and the City Council — not always allies — are singing from the same hymnal. Council President Rachel Miller and others were quick to support Smiley in rejecting the request unless it’s paired with other concessions from the state.

6. If state officials had any illusions about how hard it will be to keep Hasbro headquartered in Rhode Island, they should have been dispelled this week. The Boston Business Journal obtained internal emails revealing that Governor Healey’s team has been aggressively wooing Hasbro since April , with everything from friendly dinners to a photo of a Scrabble game. Governor McKee’s aides say they are still developing a counteroffer to present the toymaker. Elsewhere on the corporate front, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio said they’d received fresh assurances from a senior CVS executive that the company is committed to maintaining its headquarters in Rhode Island despite its current turmoil. McKee’s office also said he spoke by phone last week with CVS CEO Karen Lynch about the company’s newly announced layoffs, though there was no response to a follow-up question about whether the pair discussed how a breakup of CVS would affect the state. Rhode Island leaders aren’t the only ones sweating the situation at CVS, either. Connecticut officials are fretting about the future of the company’s Aetna insurance division , which CVS has promised to keep headquartered in Hartford through 2028.

7. Rhode Island’s $1.1 billion allocation of state relief funds under the American Rescue Plan Act was one of the highest in the country per capita. (Never hurts to have your senior senator on the Appropriations Committee.) State leaders opted to allocate a huge share of that money to housing programs: $332 million, or nearly a third of the total. But are taxpayers getting value for money on that investment, and will it move the needle on the housing shortage? RIPEC examines that question in a brand-new report , and delivers a mixed verdict. “State policymakers have made historic investments of federal dollars, expanded state programs, and advanced state policy,” said RIPEC’s Mike DiBiase . “However, our findings suggest that to eliminate the wide gap in affordable housing in the Ocean State, we need both significant additional state resources and substantial improvement on the state’s return on investment.” The report is an important read as voters weigh whether to approve the record-high $120 million housing bond that lawmakers have placed on the November ballot. RIPEC estimates that money would yield about 600 new housing units based on the state’s existing programs.

8. Our Target 12 team has had multiple must-read stories this week: Thundermust Health Center is facing dire financial problems … Lifespan’s ex-CEO took home $6.8 million on his way out the door … the Pawtucket soccer stadium project has been slightly delayed … and suspected fraudster Joseph Giuttari appeared in federal court, then sprinted away from Tim White . Our newsroom also reported on Washington Bridge demolition resuming next week (though Friday’s first-ever RIDOT public meeting on the bridge crisis lasted just nine minutes .)

9. The U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts isn’t looking particularly competitive at the moment, with a fresh Globe/Suffolk poll giving Democratic incumbent Elizabeth Warren a 24-point lead over Republican rival John Deaton . Warren was first elected in 2012, and if she wins this November she’ll be 81 at the end of her next term. But when Warren and I sat down Tuesday for a one-on-one interview in New Bedford, she expressed no hesitation about the decision to run again. “This is the job that I want to do right now,” Warren told me. “And the reason I want to do it is because I’m good at getting things done. I’ve learned how a lot of these pieces work. And I’ve got some more pieces that have been tough, that have been out there, that we have promised for years that we were going to do, like child care and housing. I want to pull those across the finish line. And I think I can do it.” You can see my full story on the Warren-Deaton race here . The pair will meet next week for two televised debates, one on Tuesday in Boston and another on Thursday out in Springfield.

10. In a newly issued decision, a federal judge strongly suggests that the prison sentence given to disgraced former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia was too lenient .

11. Ever since just after the American Revolution, the U.K. government has had a consul general representing its interests in New England. The 43rd consul general, David Clay , was appointed over the summer following prior diplomatic postings in Libya, Egypt and New York. This week Clay made his first major visit to Rhode Island, meeting with elected officials and touring the state. We sat down for an interview while he was here to discuss his role, trans-Atlantic economic development opportunities, the upcoming sesquicentennial and more. Clay told me he wants to make sure “we’re getting delegations from the U.K. over to Rhode Island, and getting delegations from Rhode Island to the U.K., to talk to each other, to build those personal relationships.” You can watch our interview here.

12. CBS News reporter Skyler Henry has a great story on how AM radio served as a lifeline in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene .

13. Hannah Levintova examines the drama in Newport over billionaire Stephen Schwarzman’s renovation of the Bellevue Avenue mansion Miramar .

14. I’ll be appearing on WGBH’s “Under the Radar” this weekend for a regional New England news roundup, along with host Callie Crossley and fellow panelists Arnie Arnesen and Jeannette Barnes ; tune in Sunday at 6 p.m. on 89.7 FM. You can also listen online here .

15. Set your DVRs: This week on Newsmakers — a debate between the candidates for Woonsocket mayor. Watch Sunday at 5:30 a.m. on WPRI 12 and 10 a.m. on Fox Providence, or listen on the radio Sunday at 6 p.m. on WPRO. You can also subscribe to Newsmakers as a podcast via Apple , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts. See you back here next Saturday.

Ted Nesi ( tnesi@wpri.com ) is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesi’s Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter , Threads and Facebook .

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