Class War continues: Kallie Speaks?

Tom and I have been posting detailed information and commentary about Charlestown’s impending property tax shake-up since March 19^th when the new property assessments hit residents’ mailboxes.

We predicted to within a penny how much the tax rate would have to rise to make up for a $400 million drop in property values. We created the unique Progressive Charlestown Magic Tax Calculator that allows you to figure out how much your new taxes will be. We showed how the new tax rate will mean major tax increases for middle-class residents, while Charlestown’s millionaire elite, many of them non-residents, will see their taxes drop.

We’ve been waiting for Charlestown’s de facto rulers, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, to weigh in. To say something. To try to put their own spin on this major development. CCA has yet to put out anything official. The anonymous comments CCA has e-mailed out on the subject have had no coherent message.

But maybe that has changed. I’m not sure, but it sure seems to me that CCA President Kallie Jurgens, a legal resident of Stuart, Florida, may have posted an anonymous comment on the CCA e-bleat. It sounds like her, or somebody using words and phrases Kallie has used before.

From CCA's April 2^nd e-mail, here’s the anonymous comment I’m talking about:

• First of all, thank you CCA. I would never know what is happening in Charlestown if it wasn't for your organization. I don' t know how you stay on top of everything! As for the tax re-evaluation. I am someone who lives  south of Route 1. For the past 15 years, my property evaluation has gone UP-- since my house value has skyrocketed. And not once did I heard anyone of the many neighbors I have all over town tell me, jeez, sorry about that. For those of my neighbors whose evaluations have gone up this year, I DO feel sorry. And it is true that almost 70% of the taxes paid to Charlestown come from homeowners south of Route 1. We, who do not put children in the schools, do not clog up the roads to the beaches, and don't demand anything but keep getting hit with higher and higher taxes. For once, that might not happen this year. But you can safely predict, it will happen next year as our home values go up in a rising economy. So, can we please stop pitting people against each other and focus on what's really important. Put forth a reasonable budget, maintain our services, care for the elderly, and keep Charlestown one of the best places to live.

OK, so the new assessments are a long-overdue redress of the injustice to South of One folks with mega-buck properties. We never shed a tear for them when their taxes were going up because their property values were skyrocketing. I concede that’s really true – that kind of problem never choked me up.

Plus, says the commenter, rich folks don’t send their kids to schools (nannies?), don’t clog the road to the beaches (private beach fronts?) and don’t ask for anything (no comment). So stop the class war, already, middle-class C-towners and take your beating.

But in fact, all through the period described by Kallie or the Kallie clone, these same oppressed rich people didn't just pay their taxes and smile. They organized the RI Shoreline Coalition to fight against town expenditures on things like the schools they don’t use, so they wouldn’t pay those high taxes. They demanded, among other things, that non-residents have the right to vote on town fiscal matters.

Well, Charlestown neighbors, maybe that’s the model we should follow. Maybe it’s time to organize our own Fair Tax campaign to give some relief to middle-class residents who are committed to living here.

Author: Will Collette