Bonnie Van Slyke: Budget Facts

Funding needed for services provided by the town (such as, plowing our roads or educating our children) and continuing to keep our ship sailing on the best course to a bright future are important to discuss.

Development throughout town should indeed be a topic for the upcoming town-wide survey, and any project(s) wanted as a result of the survey should be proposed for referendum.

Here are some budget facts:

• The operating budget and the town’s “levy” (the amount of money collected from all of us to run our town) are virtually identical to last year’s.
• The tax rate will go down, from $9.23 per thousand dollars of valuation to $8.20 per thousand in this budget.
• A number of property values, and therefore a number of assessments, have increased because homes in their neighborhoods have sold recently at prices substantially above the values established a full three years ago.
• Revaluation and its timing are mandated by the state of Rhode Island, and the date that must be used is December 31, 2019. The Town Council has done nothing, nor could it, to affect the revaluation process, its timing, or its results.
• The town is required to use the assessed valuations determined by the Tax Assessor on December 31, 2019. This is also state law.
• Our police pension plan is a promise to our police, a debt owed.
• Charlestown police pension funds are separated from the pension funds of other towns in the pension plan and are invested conservatively.
• A contribution to the pension plan for our police and the paying down of expensive debt will save taxpayers money and, therefore, will help to keep tax rates low.
• Nothing proposed at the Budget Public Hearing or in Town Council meetings by opponents of the budget would provide relief to taxpayers or reduce the tax rate.
• The town can provide help to those who have problems paying their tax bills. These individuals need to contact Tax Collector Jo Anne Santos at 401-364-1234. There is help available also for those who have trouble feeding their families.

Our town will weather this storm if we work together, which is what we all do best—for example, when we successfully defeated the plan for rail lines that would have bisected our town. Or when we worked to defeat a plan to take water from Charlestown’s aquifer and truck it to Burrillville.

There is no need to panic and make poor financial decisions. The budget recommended by the Budget Commission to the Town Council and recommended by the Town Council to the voters is responsible and forward-thinking. I urge voters to vote YES.

 

 

Bonnie Van Slyke is a member of the Charlestown Town Council. You can learn more about Bonnie at her profile page.