Petition to Lower Taxes in South Kingstown Gets a Green Light

You did it! It's official. The Canvassing Authority has completed its work and verified over 300 signatures on the petition. This means SK's voters will have an opportunity to do what our Town Council wasn't willing to do last month and give every single taxpayer some much-needed relief when the new tax year begins on July 1st. That includes seniors on fixed incomes, businesses throughout town, and families that have seen inflation devour disposable income.

I want to personally thank the volunteers who went out and gathered over 360 signatures in 5 days for my petition to hold a budget referendum on Tuesday, June 6th, in South Kingstown. The referendum will ask every registered voter to decide for themselves whether the Property Tax Transfer (PTT) to the school district for FY2023-24 should be reduced by $1.5M. That number is well within the amount allowed by RI General Law § 16-7-23(a) which says 'A community that has a decrease in enrollment may compute maintenance-of-effort (MOE) on a per-pupil basis...when determining its local contribution.' The maximum number for losing (97) more students since last year is $2.1M, so $1.5M is only 70% of the allowable amount.

If this referendum is approved on Jun 6th the FY 2023 municipal tax rate can be lowered to $10.855 per thousand instead of rising to $11.07 on July 1st. This is not like a revaluation where some taxes go up and others down. Every taxpayer's tax bills can be cut - residential and commercial.

There are two key reasons this is so important this year. First and foremost, that General Law has been on the books since 1998, and the number of students in South Kingstown School District has declined every year since 2002, from (4,400 to 2,500), yet our councils have refused to use it to keep our per-pupil-expenses (PPE) from climbing every year. At $28,000, it's now the 2nd highest in RI.

And secondly, this November voters will be asked to approve a $125M construction bond referendum to build a new high school on School St, but with the financing structured as it is now, every penny will be added to what you already pay in taxes. It shouldn't be that way. We shouldn't be paying $10,000 per student more than Barrington and East Greenwich, but we are, because the Town Council cares more about keeping the teacher's union happy, than how those educators are performing in their classrooms, or whether they show up for work. They’ll be more to come on that last point.