Instead
of pre-paying bills, Charlestown’s focus should be on Charlestown’s economy and
its jobless citizens
By
Will Collette
After
two weeks of mail-in voting, Town Clerk Amy Weinreich announced there were 1202
“yes” votes for the Charlestown budget backed by the controlling Charlestown
Citizens Alliance versus 730 “no” votes.
|
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Mail Ballot
|
1152
|
629
|
|
Mail Ballot (Manual Count)
|
29
|
10
|
|
Charlestown Elementary School
|
21
|
91
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL
|
1202
|
730
|
Thus the June 1 Charlestown Budget Referendum gave approval of the CCA Party’s budget.
I
really hope the CCA party doesn’t use it – or at least not right away. We just reported
that Charlestown’s
unemployment rate has hit 19.1%. That’s the highest it’s ever been in
the 30 years recorded in the RI Department of
Labor and Training database. When the May numbers come it, this percentage
could go even higher.
Charlestown’s
unemployment rate is higher than the statewide average of 17.8%.
The
just-approved CCA Budget was written with assumptions based on the past,
before the country was stricken by the COVID-19 pandemic and its massive impact
on the economy at every level.
Our
record high unemployment shows that Charlestown has not escaped its effects.
Our newly approved budget assumes we will enjoy the same income we have had in
the past from our typical summer activities.
Normally,
our population triples in the summer and we get tens of thousands of day
trippers and festival goers. They buy tickets and spend lots of money.
I
think we can all agree that none of this is going to happen. No festivals.
Greatly reduced day trippers. Fewer summer people. Sharply reduced customers at
Charlestown restaurants that manage to re-open.
And
with so many Charlestown residents unemployed, that can’t be good for tax
collections.
There
is no way to accurately predict how hard a hit Charlestown’s finances are going
to take, except we can be pretty sure it will be a big one.
I believe Charlestown’s town government needs to have a laser
focus on using town resources to boost our local economy and help our numerous
unemployed.
Yes, it’s true that Charlestown is not to blame for the pandemic
and resulting depression-like economic disaster nor does it have the power to
fix those problems. That will take national leadership and international
cooperation, which we do not have.
But that does not mean Charlestown is powerless.
First, I think the CCA Party needs to indefinitely postpone its
plan to pre-pay town bills, including paying off debt run up by Planning
Commissar Ruth Platner’s open space buying spree.
We need do what we can to put people to work. In the budget,
voters approved $400,000 in improvements at the Charlestown Animal Shelter.
That’s great, but we can do better. Why not ask voters to approve construction
of a new Shelter – state of the art, like Animal Rescue RI’s great facility in
Peacedale – that could employ Charlestown construction workers?
Public works projects are a time-tested, effective way to put
people to work. Dust off projects that have been in the works and let’s get
people back to work.
Charlestown can also use its taxation and regulatory powers in a
positive way by giving small businesses and homeowners incentives that lead to
job creation and stem job loss in town.
Charlestown should use its regulatory, permitting and purchase power
to help local businesses and to prevent Charlestown’s commerce from being
snapped up by unsavory characters.
Charlestown needs a link to public transportation to help people
get to where the jobs are.
Maybe we need to do another referendum to get approval for
expenditures aimed at boosting the town economy. We can do that and, if the
plans make sense, I’m sure town voters would approve them.
I’ve made specific suggestions in the past – largely unheeded or
ridiculed by the CCA Party – in the past for ways our small town of Charlestown
can help its citizens cope with hard times. To read those ideas, click HERE
and click HERE.
In these hard times we face, can we afford to dismiss any reasonable
idea, regardless of its source? All of us, no matter what your political views,
ought to think about ways we can help Charlestown weather this storm.