Congratulations to Charlestown’s new Town Council

You can do great things, Part 1

By Will Collette

This is the first of a two-part series. Part 2 will run tomorrow night.

For the second straight election, Charlestown voters rejected the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) and voted continued confidence in the leadership from Charlestown Residents United (CRU). This time voters picked an all-CRU slate led by newly sworn in Council President Deb Carney and Vice-President Rippy Serra. For the first time since 2008, there is no one from the CCA on the Town Council.

They held their first business meeting tonight (Dec. 9) of the new term.

The CCA’s traditional power base on the Planning Commission is no longer filled with commissioners who snap “jawohl” to every command from CCA leader and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner. In addition to newly elected CRU-endorsed Glenn Babcock, CCA stalwart Lisa St. Goddard who was just re-elected but now just resigned and will be replaced by the CRU-controlled Town Council.

CRU-endorsed Patricia Stamps is already on the Planning Commission. With the addition of Glenn Babcock and whoever is picked to replace Lisa St. Goddard, the cracks in Platner’s platform of obstructionism are becoming evident.

So Charlestown has a substantially changed power structure led by an all CRU Council. Can we hope to see some action on issues that have long been dismissed by the CCA?

Charlestown’s Town Council has a broad array of powers it can use to make change. It can pass ordinances. It can repeal ordinances. It can issue resolutions. It can direct town staff to make administrative changes. It can make recommendations to our General Assembly representatives for legislation that would help the town.

I’m particularly interested in fair taxation and believe tax reform in town is long-overdue to address these issues:

Property tax relief for volunteer firefighters.

We should not only show them our gratitude but provide incentives for recruitment and retention. This would require General Assembly approval. South Kingstown provides us with a recent example of what to do in legislation that Rep. Teresa Tanzi got passed last year.

Homestead (or Resident) Tax Credit.

First proposed by Charlestown Democrats in 2011 and crushed by the CCA on behalf of its non-resident political donors, a Homestead tax credit would give full-time residents tax relief to make up for the costs we bear to accommodate part-time residents and visitors.

Every summer, our population grows from 8,000 to 30,000. We have to maintain a year-round infrastructure to pay for that – police, roads, trash collection at public locations, strain on water, etc. We endure heavy traffic, poor drivers, increased litter

Most of Rhode Island’s coastal towns (e.g. Newport, North Kingstown, Narragansett) have had such a tax credit program for years. South Kingstown has one that is focused on seniors and is currently working on an expanded Homestead credit. It’s time for Charlestown to step up for those of us who make Charlestown our home.

In 2011, the CCA argued a homestead tax credit would piss off non-resident property owners so much that they either leave or stop using local businesses and services. They might even boycott local charities – as if they were big local givers anyway.

None of these arguments hold water. They're buying up big ticket properties in Charlestown often for DOUBLE the assessed value. A tax hike of a few thousand dollars isn’t going to phase some New York hedge fund manager who just paid $3 million for a beachfront house assessed at $1 million. 

Further, they're not going to mow their own grass, fix their own plumbing and bring their groceries with them from Manhattan. Besides, if these new Charlestown home buyers decide to actually live here, they'd get the Homestead Credit, too.

No more tax breaks for fake fire districts.

The Quonnie Central Beach Fire District's 28 acre rec center, was
assessed at $98,000. This is the photo the Charlestown Tax Assessor
posted in 2014, not the one being used today. 

Charlestown has two wealthy homeowner associations that operate as “fire districts” even though they have no trucks, equipment, fire houses or firefighters. Quonnie resident and CCA President Leo Mainelli’s fire extinguishers don’t count.

Shady Harbor Fire District pays ZERO property tax to Charlestown despite owning six prime pieces of coastal real estate. Their 19.26 acres total includes a private beach where public access is strictly forbidden, a dock, boat launch, three vacant lots on Meyerand Drive and a pumping station for private water, all worth millions. The Fire District pays nothing.

Central Quonnie FD is not tax-exempt, but its property tax assessments are insanely low. Central Quonnie owns 10 prime coastal properties totaling 38 acres with tennis courts, a sports field, private beach docks, boat launches and a beach club as well as a private water system plus five vacant lots on Surfside Ave. 

Doing a spot comparison between similar properties, it appears that non-Quonnie property is assessed at dollar values eight times higher than Central Quonnie property.

These two fake fire districts, better understood as homeowner associations, own almost 60 prime shore acres and pay almost nothing in property tax. Given the locations, these properties could be assessed at as much as $100 million or close to $600,000 in tax underpayments. 

That means all of us Charlestown taxpayers are subsidizing these posh gated neighborhoods. That’s just wrong.

I recommend a Council resolution or directive to our Tax Assessor to tax these properties as if they were owned by any other homeowners’ association.

Tina and Victoria regularly team up to help pass bills

I also suggest the Charlestown Town Council asks our state legislators, especially Rep. Tina Spears and Senator Victoria Gu – both of whom have shown outstanding work in their first terms – to craft legislation to require that any organization bearing the title and holding the privileges of fire district must use most of its resources to actually fight fires.

Ending the fake fire districts’ tax breaks would offset the cost of a firefighter tax credit and a homestead tax credit.

These proposed tax initiatives would be a big step toward much fairer taxation in Charlestown without increasing Charlestown’s overall tax burden.

Tomorrow night, I will run “You can do great things, Part 2” with more ideas how our new town government can improve the lives of Charlestown residents.