Charlestown political news briefs

• Congratulations, Mike!
• New campaign finance reports are filed, except for Tina Jackson’s
• CCA Party doubles down on its campaign against children
• Good news, bad news: Uptick in property values, but global warming will wipe out beach properties
• Charlestown unemployment rate drops
• Charlestown rep takes over as Chariho chair
• Check’s in the mail for Westerly, South County Hospitals

Mike Dowdell (photo by Ivan Sieckowski, Coventry CT)

By Will Collette

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of Charlestown politics, congrats to local surfer dude Mike Dowdell for winning the third leg of the North East Skim Tour Contest in Seabrook, NH. 

The tour had its second annual outing in Charlestown on June 30. 

Campaign finance reports show little local fund-raising 

The July 31 campaign disclosure filings with the RI Board of Elections show that the three major parties in Charlestown – the dominant Charlestown Citizens Alliance Party, the Democrats and the Republicans – had a slow quarter.

This is my attempt at holding your attention through this
segment on campaign finance reporting

The CCA Party report shows they raised nothing, but spent $1,347.34, most of it on insurance for their board members, and dropped their cash balance to $2,992.36. 

The CCA Party generally raises nearly all of its campaign war chest in the last few weeks before an election, mostly from wealthy non-residents.

The Charlestown Republican Town Committee reports raising nothing and spending nothing, holding a cash balance of $481.17.

The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee reports raising $480 small donations from individuals, spending $328.94 and ending the quarter with a balance of $3,808.25. Town Democrats don’t have the out-of-town donor base that funds the CCA Party, so they raise campaign funds year-round (click here for details) for people like you (readers of Progressive Charlestown).

The two other active Charlestown campaign accounts are those of Rep. Donna Walsh who had an active quarter. Her report shows $2,800 in income, $205.96 in expenses and a balance of $11,327.05. 

Her 2012 opponent, Republican Tina Jackson, is now delinquent on her last five campaign finance reports. The Board of Elections has issued five notices of violation against her, each accumulating daily fines. She now owes well over $1,000 in fines.

Is this going to be the CCA Party’s main campaign theme?

For reasons that I can’t begin to understand, the CCA Party has re-posted its infamous “Cost of Development” Calculator on its website. This calculator is not only of dubious validity, but also displays the CCA Party’s distaste for Charlestown families with children. 

This formula is designed to “prove” the theory promoted by CCA leader, Charlestown Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, that children are parasites so Charlestown should discourage families with school age children from living in Charlestown. Don’t believe me? Check out the Calculator  and tell me what you think this thing is trying to prove.

Talking about property values

This is on a lot of people’s minds lately. The Town Council held a special workshop on a subject near and dear to their core constituency – what’s going to happen to beach front properties as the effects of climate change continue to be felt? 

In a nutshell – and this isn’t anything new – those beach property owners are screwed. Click here to watch the presentation. 

It’s ironic that the CCA Party diehards are in line to take the hit from climate change when they are also the leading local opponents of green energy.

This is also going to be a revaluation year where town consultants will be checking out your property and making adjustments to your assessed value. This will affect the town’s tax base and that will change the town tax rate. 

In the worst case scenario for some homeowners, you may find your assessed value going up, and then get hit with a double-whammy of an increased tax rate. After all, the CCA Party has raised the tax rate in each of the last six years.

However, if Zillow.com is right, Charlestown’s tax base may have climbed out of the cellar. Homes are selling again (36 in June) and the average home value is now up to $305,000. In August, 2012, we hit a 10-year low at $297,000. We’re ahead of last year by 0.2%.

If overall property values in Charlestown have increased, as Zillow says, that will grow the tax base and reduce the tax rate – unless the CCA Party decides to raise taxes again. However, If the rate goes down, it may offset the increase in your tax assessment. 

That’s what happened in 2008 – the year before the CCA Party took power – when the tax rate was cut from $7.51 to $7.16 to reflect a rise in property values just before the real estate market collapsed. Click here to see Charlestown’s tax rates over the years.

Charlestown job numbers improve

Just another anti-sleep aid

The other piece of good news is a drop in Charlestown unemployment rate to 7.2% for June, down from our 2012 average of 11.4%. We had hit a peak in January of 12.3%, but the rate has dropped steadily over the past five months.

However, part of the drop was caused by almost 200 Charlestown residents dropping out of the workforce. 

At present, Charlestown’s total workforce is 4,492 workers (by the way, that statistic belies the myth that Charlestown is a retirement village – most residents work for a living). Of those, 4,170 are working and 322 are unemployed. Most Charlestown workers work elsewhere since the town has very few jobs.

Charlestown rep takes over chair of Chariho School Committee

Areglado and Chambers - one step closer to power

No, it’s not the CCA Party’s school committee picks Ron Areglado or Donna Chambers, but Craig Lauzon who, as vice-chair, will temporarily serve as School Committee chair after the resignation of Richmond’s Chair Michelle Cole from the committee.

Cole served five years on the committee, and less than a year as chair. She noted that the actual demands of the position far exceed what she was led to believe, cutting into the time she could spend with her three young children.

It didn't help that voters in the three Chariho towns rejected the school budget for this year three times in a row, forcing the system to keep operating on last year's budget.

The Committee will now have to decide who to choose to replace Cole permanently, assuming they don’t keep Lauzon on beyond this interim service. Here’s the big chance for Areglado or Chambers to move up!

Westerly Hospital's new board:
don't spend that million bucks all in
one place!

Nice boost for South County Hospital, Westerly Hospital revenues

Southern Rhode Island hospitals have been complaining that they have been getting hosed when the reimbursement rates they receive are compared with other hospitals in the state. It turns out that their complaints were justified and, amazingly, heeded. 

The federal government will be giving South County Hospital an additional $1.09 million in Medicare reimbursements due to a recalculation of their costs by the feds. Westerly Hospital is going to get a much needed $990,000 more in payments.