Palmer Pointe Petition Delivered To The Town Council

The petition requesting denial of resident paid tax abatements to the Palmer Pointe project was just delivered to the Town Hall.  It had only run over the weekend, but garnered 61 votes.  

http://barrington.patch.com/blog_posts/palmer-pointe-what-can-the-averag...

The need to deliver this quickly stems from the fact that there are side issues that the council should review in advance of the June 3, 2013 council meeting to give this issue a proper vetting.

I summarized these issues in the petition's cover letter which I include below. (Disclaimer - I'm not an attorney and speak for my own interests as a taxpayer in the cover letter.  It should not be seen as legal advice.)  

Thanks to all who signed, and may still want to sign to send a message to the council.  Please also consider coming to the Town Council meeting on June 3rd.  Headcount can make a difference.

May 20, 2013

Dear Town Council Members,  

The attached petition to the Barrington Town Council respectfully requests that the Town Council vote and deny tax abatements to the Palmer Pointe development as may be requested, or anticipated, by the developer, East Bay Community Development Corporation (EBCDC).  The petition was filed electronically on the website Change.og on Friday, May 17, 2013, and gained the requisite 20 signatures quickly.   

We are submitting this petition after only three days given there is limited time for review by the Council before the June 3, 2013 council meeting.   Apart from the petition itself, and as we may be residents, homeowners, and taxpayers in Barrington, we separately submit the below additional considerations and backup data for review by the Town Council.  

1) The Palmer Pointe development is new construction and does not fulfill all requirements under §44-5-13.11 requiring that in order to receive the Tax Abatement, the development "...has been issued an occupancy permit on or after January 1, 1995, after substantial rehabilitation as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ...".  The Palmer Pointe development will be new construction and thus EBCDC cannot show that this is a rehabilitated property "as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing".  

2) The Tax Abatement scheme would create an unfair and disproportionate burden for low and moderate income persons living in existing deed restricted homes (e.g. Walker Farm), as well as an unfair and disproportionate burden for low and moderate income persons living in non-deed restricted homes and rental units who do not receive equivalent financial consideration on their property assessments.  (See attached financial data).  

Such a Tax Abatement scheme may be out of compliance with the Fair Distribution Clause of Article 1, section 2 of the Constitution of the State of Rhode Island in that it fails to meet the requirement that it applies fair burdens to sufficiently similar persons living in the Town of Barrington.  In essence, EBCDC appears to be arguing that low and moderate income residents who live in subsidized rental housing must, by that definition alone, be subsidized by other Barrington residents who may be in similar financial circumstances.   

The Town of Barrington has already faced the issue of disproportionate tax assessments and burdens in the August, 2010 lawsuit, Scott Adams vs Michael Minardi, Tax Assessor.   In that lawsuit, the court did cite Picerne v. DiPrete, 428 A.2d 1074, 1076 (R.I. 1981) - “Such “disproportionate assessments” based upon arbitrary and discriminatory evaluations “violate[] the fair-distribution clause of art. 1, sec. 2 of the Rhode Island Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”  

3) Should the Town Council approve the Tax Abatement, they would in effect be granting subsidies to persons in income brackets of between $28,000 to $57,504 (80% of AMI for a family of 4), where the Town Council on May 6, 2013 did consider and deny similar consideration for existing senior residents in the Senior Tax Deferral program.   

4) The State of RI School Funding Formula applies an overall "wealth" calculation that is financially harmful to low and moderate income Barrington households as compared to similar households from other communities. This results in Barrington's highest per capita property tax burden in RI (excluding the summer communities of Jamestown and Block Island).  We are slowly evolving into a "move out if you can't keep up" community.  This financial problem will be made worse for many of Barrington's existing moderate and low income households if affordable housing initiatives are not sufficiently supported by State of RI financial resources instead of tapping into local resident subsidies.  

For the reasons stated, and because the community at large has been denied the opportunity to vote their preference on this matter in the March 22, 2013 Financial Town Meeting, it is respectfully requested that the Palmer Pointe tax abatement be voted and denied by the Town Council. Thank you for your consideration and time to review this matter.  

Attached data:

SweetBriar (47 units) consistent with Palmer Pointe (48 units) request for abatement 

• Assessment based on 8% of rent per December 2, 2008 Town Council vote 

• FY 2012 total Sweetbriar property tax bill -   $35,024                                 
• Per unit tax payment equates to an assessment of -     $41,389                                                 
• Average per unit annual property tax bill -               $745                                                                       

 Walker Farm

Assessment must be same as any home in Barrington with "discount" per deed restriction covenants for "hypothetical future sales price"

• Average "deed restricted" assessment based on 80% area median income -     $220,000           
• Average property tax bill computes to -     $3960                                                            

Palmer Pointe abuts Orchard Avenue - 29 total homes on Orchard Avenue                                                                        

• Average assessment - $263,459
• Average property tax bill -   $4742
• Total assessment of 29 homes -     $7,640,300
• Total property taxes paid by 29 homes -   $137,525