In Chafee's view, any major increase in school spending should wait until a new superintendent has been hired to replace Tarlian, who will leave his post June 30. Chafee said it was risky to spend money now on initiatives that a new superintendent may not support.

The new budget includes salaries for the six dispatchers that Chafee had hoped to eliminate by combining the police and fire dispatch services. Chafee still wants to modernize both dispatch services with new computers, but a majority on the council seems opposed to having police and fire dispatchers working in the same room. Even without a chance to save six full-time salaries, Chafee said he would ask the council on June 3 to approve bids on the new computers so both services at least can be modernized, if not combined.

"You can't have a discussion about numbers that are changing as information is digested," Chafee said. "Now that we have it all down on paper, we can discuss it."