Letter: Surprise $1m PILOT Money Should Be Used to Reduce the Budget

To the editor:
Monday evening the North Kingstown Town Council will be passing the budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1, 2015. It is important to attend this meeting to express your opinion at the beginning of the meeting about the town’s budget for the next year. You can do this during Citizen Comments at the start of the meeting. Do not expect that there will be an opportunity to say anything after that about the budget.

At the meeting on Thursday the manager told the council that he had found a million dollars in Pilot Payments from QDC that he did not include in his proposed budget, wow. He has been doing the budget for seven years and missed a million dollars in revenue. Do not expect this to reduce the tax rate however as the council and manager have found places to spend this money, thanks. Please remember that this council has not reduced the manager’s proposed budget at all and now they have an additional million dollars, just doesn’t seem right does it?

The council president and other Republican members of the council campaigned that the last budget called for the lowest increase in years but when compared to our neighbor South Kingstown which was .02 cents in the current year and proposed at .10 cents in the next budget we could learn from our neighbor.

The council is used to the public staying home and being silent. This is your chance to speak up and let them know how you feel. Hope to see you there.

Signed,

Richard Welch/North Kingstown

Editor’s note: Richard Welch is a former North Kingstown Town Councilman.