To the Editor:

 At the last Warwick City Council meeting, the council voted to change the way property tax is apportioned from the current policy, where residential owners pay 57% of commercial, to a plan where residential and commercial owners would pay a percentage equal to what their respective class paid in tax the previous year. 

This was done because typically, commercial values never increase at the rate of residential values, so if there were one rate, the commercial tax would increase unexpectedly, and commercial owners are more sensitive to change than homeowners – ha!

The percentage change would be allowed every year.

To me, such percentage changes should be tied to the revaluation schedule of years 3-3-9. Simple. Understandable.

Consistency and predictability in taxation is just as important to homeowners as it is to commercial owners, yet the proposed legislation puts commercial interests before homeowners (aka voters) by not fixing percentage change when assessments are updated each three years.

The tax rate is a simple calculated result of two certifiable numbers: the assessed value of real estate and the budget as approved by the council. There are no variables since this function meets the statutory requirement that tax is apportioned fairly and equitably.

For years the city has used a defined two-tier tax based on a fixed rate in an effort to meet the fair and equitable apportionment. 

Yet now, the administration wants ‘flexibility” and the ability to provide incentives to commercial owners. Tax incentives are the prerogative of the City Council only. The mayor can suggest, but the council has responsibility for the budget … how and who is taxed according to law.

It is impossible to have a fair and equitable basis when you allow flexible treatment. Flexible flies in the face of the Rhode Island General Laws permitting property taxation.

Allowing such flexibility may have unintended consequences. 

The second passage will happen at the next meeting. Taxpayers need to react quickly.

Ann Sheridan

Warwick