East Providence Cleaners Takes Stand on State Tax Proposal

On a sign typically dedicated to showcasing store hours and specials, the owners of Hope Cleaners on Warren Avenue, Deborah and Arthur Martitz, have displayed the message: "Please no sales tax for our customers."

The sign was posted in response to the Governor Lincoln Chafee's budget proposal. The budget would implement a new six percent tax on an assortment services, such as dry cleaning.

While Deborah Martitz has been a firm opponent of a sales tax expansion, she said that it was her husband who posted the sign.

"I went out to run errands and came back to see the message on the side of the building," she said. "I agree with what it says."

After living for in Rhode Island for more than 18  years, Martitz moved to Seekonk, MA. She said her car and property taxes went down "dramatically." However, while she's concerned about the overall economic conditions in the Ocean State, her sign is aimed at giving a voice to those who use her services.

"When I first heard about the tax proposal, I wasn't thinking about my income," she said. "I'm thinking about my customers. They're the ones who would have to pay it."

If enacted, the six percent tax on Hope Cleaners' services would be paid directly by consumers, thus increasing the cost of the transaction.

The timing of the tax proposal in an uncertain economy is Martitz’s top concern.

"I understand that Rhode Island’s in a financial mess," she said. "But people are hurting, and they're looking to cut back, not add on. It's just not the right time."

Yet, even with her business's public denouncement of the budget, Martitz says she's not averse to taxes completely. 

"I'm not saying we shouldn't have taxes," she said. "But when it comes to things like this, it's working people who get the brunt of it."

Martitz knows her customers well. The business has been in her family for three generations and was passed to her by her father. She says the evidence of a lagging economy presents itself in her daily operations.

"I see a lot of people bringing in older and stored away items to be cleaned for special occasions," she said. "People are cutting back where they can. The state should do the same."

Martitz is not alone in expecting those on Capitol Hill to mimic the belt-tightening being done by many East Providence residents. 

"When a business doesn't have money coming in, it can't just create money that isn't there," said Laura McNamara, executive director of the East Providence Area Chamber of Commerce. "Our state should be doing what businesses have had to do: cut spending."

McNamara also added that she knows of business owners who have willingly forfeited their personal pay so as to keep their employees paid.

“In a time when small business owners are making large sacrifices, and there’s nothing wrong with asking our state to do the same,” she said.

The chamber, which represents the economic interests of a diverse range of businesses, also has a constituency of non-profit organizations. McNamara said she understands that the types of state cuts she and others within her chamber support would potentially not be advantageous to those organizations.

"Certainly state cuts would have an impact on certain non-profit organizations," she said. "We're sensitive to that."

The budget has been , Gordon Fox, who has made public his prediction that it will not pass as is.

In the meantime, Martitz is holding out hope that the state's fiscal process will "not harm [her] customers."

"Too many businesses have been driven out of this state," she said. "Enough is enough."