Gencarella: Let’s Leave It A Local Issue

Friday, May 29, 2015

Pam Gencarella, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

The question “How did it get this way?” is heard uttered by weary RI taxpayers time and again when assessing the high cost of their city or town’s local government services and functions. There’s no doubt it is a deeply frustrating question, and though there are layers of complexity involved, the truth is, the answer to that question is not shrouded in mystery. In fact, one need not look much further than the RI General Assembly to see where the answer lies. There are maneuvers going on at the Legislature right now, generally behind the scenes, which have a lot to do, not only with the disproportionately high costs of our local city and town government services at their current level, but also have to do with what those levels will hit in the near future.

Fire protection in RI cities and towns is a huge cost driver for our communities, and in fact, is among one of the highest per capita in the nation. Yet, despite a recent effort by one town, and a newly announced effort by the city of Providence to pursue fair, safe and reasonable cost reductions to fire service, the Legislature is right now working to sabotage the chance for that needed change to occur, and the man leading the sabotage effort is none other than Speaker Mattiello. Despite the Speaker’s remarks earlier this spring that decisions about fire protection do not belong within the Legislature and should be made by local town officials, Mattiello appears ready, willing, and able to undermine local officials’ abilities to oversee their own local fire protection shift decisions, specifically regarding platoon and work scheduling. This should be of serious concern to every taxpayer, to every mayor and town administrator and, most importantly, to every city and town council.

Is the Speaker Conflicted?

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Certainly you have heard the claims that, because Speaker Mattiello rents space to the fire union and accepts campaign contributions from firefighter unions across the state, he has a conflict of interest when it comes to this kind of legislation. As expected, the Speaker’s response to that claim was an adamant ‘No Way’.

But looking at the 2014 session, we saw how the Speaker passed legislation in support of the firefighter unions in Coventry’s fire districts. While the Coventry taxpayers fought long and hard over a number of years to take control of their fire service, legislation was passed that kept control out of the hands of taxpayers. It wouldn’t last for long because the district was so far gone, but the message was sent that protecting the firefighters would come at all costs. Is that what will happen with this bill?

Eyes Wide Open

Providence Mayor Elorza recognizes, better than anyone, that the high cost of public firefighter unions is crowding out other public services. Nothing highlights this better than the recent rally at the State House where Providence school children demanded he address the long distances they are expected to walk (or to hop public transportation) to get to school. Up until last year, Providence did not provide transportation if you lived less than about 3 miles from school. While the school committee is in the process of gradually reducing that, this winter, with the dangers of walking in mile high snow piles, the stark truth about priorities in municipal spending were apparent.

Elorza, backed by a recent RI Supreme Court decision, has called for a change in the fire department’s platoon structure and work schedule in a courageous effort to reduce the cost of providing fire protection to local residents. Of course, he has seen significant push back from the firefighters union. However, keep in mind that, according to the US Dept. of Labor Statistics, 2/3 of the country uses the system that North Kingstown has opted to use - the 3 platoon structure - and now, the system the Mayor is choosing to utilize. Can 2/3 of the country be wrong? Can 2/3 of the country be diluting the effectiveness of fire protection? Perhaps the current structure is why WatchdogRI’s report indicates that the cost of RI fire protection is nearly double that of comparable fire protection organizations. Just one more indication that RI is an outlier. The non-partisan public policy organization, RI Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) has highlighted RI’s high cost of fire service for years and has shown how it is a significant cost driver in the resulting high property taxes. The state as a whole must move to be more consistent with the rest of the world, including in the area of fire service.

North Kingstown, Ground Zero

Presumably Representative Craven (North Kingstown), hailing from ground zero of the platoon structure/work schedule issue, will be working hard to oppose this legislation. His town spent a significant amount of resources and effort in winning the right to manage its local affairs. As a representative of the people of North Kingstown and as a representative who chairs the Municipal Government Committee one would think he would be committed on two levels - the first to protect North Kingstown’s hard won Supreme Court case to maintain local fiscal authority and the second to protect the ability of all cities and towns to maintain local fiscal authority.

And What About Governor Raimondo?

We are now in the last 3 or 4 weeks of the legislative session. We all know there is serious horse trading taking place with legislators having to secure votes to get their own legislation passed. Do you know where your legislator is? How many trades will be made on the firefighter platoon bill? And when all the last minute deals are made and the late nights have ended, if the legislation should pass, what will the Governor’s position be on the issue? She herself said, before she did some backpedaling, that the “General Assembly and lobbyists take the Governor’s budget and, often in the dark of night, in a quiet room, hack it up every which way and out pops a budget." What is she willing to trade for her big budget proposals?

The Usual Bullying Tactics

Last week it was reported that 100 fire fighters descended upon the State House in a show of support for passing the legislation that would make an end run around the RI Supreme Court and whittle away the fiscal authority of our municipalities. H 5473 would help to further cement RI’s last place position in business friendly surveys and in tax surveys by placing management decisions in the hands of the fire fighter unions instead of with the people you elect at the polls. We hope that your calls to the Speaker will drown out the calls from the firefighters union to squash municipal control over management decisions.

What Ending Will the Story Have?

In the end, when the 2015 session is over in just a few weeks, will we be saying that the Speaker stood by his words that fire service is a local issue? Or will he have once again supported firefighter unions?

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Pam Gencarella is a member of OSTPA, a taxpayer advocacy organization in Rhode Island.

Related Slideshow: The Highest Taxed Communities for 2015

How do the taxes in your community compare to other cities and towns in Rhode Island?

GoLocalProv has ranked communities from the least to the highest taxed on the basis of their tax rates, using newly released data from the state Division of Municipal Finance. The below slides list the tax rate per $1,000 in value for homes, commercial property, personal property, and motor vehicles for the 2015 fiscal year, which began last July and ends next June.

Along with the rates are examples of what taxes might cost a typical resident in each city or town. For residential taxes, this calculation is based on the current statewide median price for a single family home, which is $215,000. For communities with them, homestead exemptions are factored in using the latest available figures. For motor vehicles, the example used is a 2008 Honda Accord, valued at the maximum retail price of $15,150. The total cost of home and car taxes is then represented as a percentage of the median income for that community, offering a rough measure of how affordable taxes are for those residents as compared with the taxes in another city or town.

Data sources: the Rhode Island Division of Municipal Finance, the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, the National Automobile Dealers Association, and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Gencarella: Let’s Leave It A Local Issue

Related Slideshow: The Highest Taxed Communities for 2015

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