NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Two Rhode Island communities can use about $70 million forfeited by Google Inc. to fix their police pension shortfalls after the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday waived rules restricting how the money could be spent.
The news is a boon for the financially troubled city of East Providence and the town of North Providence, which face unfunded pension liabilities in the tens of millions of dollars.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who pushed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for the waiver, said using the money to relieve the pension burden was the highest and best use of the money.
“It is certainly a transformational financial moment,” Whitehouse said at a news conference. North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi called it a monumental decision for both communities that would affect residents for years.
Police from those communities had helped a federal investigation into the search engine company’s distribution of ads for illegal prescription drug sales. Each community got a $60 million share when Google agreed to forfeit $500 million.
But rules prescribed how the money could be spent, leading to the waiver.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.