State v. Eight Cities and Towns

OPINION

KELLEHER, Justice.

This Superior Court declaratory-judgment action involves the State of Rhode Island and eight of its municipalities.1 At issue is whether the State or the individual municipalities, during the period 1978 through 1986, had the responsibility of withholding the municipal employees’ share and paying the employers’ share of the taxes due the Social Security Administration (SSA) on the educational-incentive pay paid to the eligible members of the municipalities’ police and fire departments. Hereafter we shall refer to the eight municipalities as the defendants.

To put this…