<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Thanks for the notice, Jim. I bet Jeff is right that the net increase for us won't be so high. The city expects to raise only an additional $16 million with the higher rates, which works out to an increase of only 5.37%. The homeowner rate after the exemption is going up the 14% you've mentioned, the commercial/industrial/mixed use rate is going up 9%, while the rate for tangible personal property is unchanged. Unclear if the motor vehicle tax rate is changing -- the ad doesn't say.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the actual budget figures in the ad, the revenue from local property taxes will go up only 5.14%. As for city spending, the budget calls for a reduction of 3.41%.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I wonder if it's possible for us as a neighborhood association to start thinking about tradeoffs. No one wants higher property taxes. But what if the alternative is streets with more potholes and sinkholes, fewer police patrols, and other essential services? The city has to get the money somewhere. Rather than simply try to argue against individual painful choices the city might make, is there some way for us to communicate priorities? -John Landry</div><div><br><div><div>On Jun 13, 2011, at 7:20 AM, Jeffrey Cavanaugh wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Is there a re-evaluation happening too? Don't they do a statistical re-evaluation annually? If so, that could lower the effective tax increase if property values have decreased.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 7:06 AM, Jim Kelley <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jim-kelley2@cox.net">jim-kelley2@cox.net</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Did you see in today's PROJO (page B8) that the Mayor's budget includes a residential tax rate increase from $15.19 to $17.25 (this is the effective rate after the homestead exemption).<br> A 14% increase! Wow.<br> Jim Kelley<br> <br> _______________________________________________<br> Summit mailing list<br> <a href="mailto:Summit@sna.providence.ri.us">Summit@sna.providence.ri.us</a><br> <a href="http://mail.sna.providence.ri.us/mailman/listinfo/summit_sna.providence.ri.us" target="_blank">http://mail.sna.providence.ri.us/mailman/listinfo/summit_sna.providence.ri.us</a><br> SNA Website: <a href="http://sna.providence.ri.us/" target="_blank">http://sna.providence.ri.us/</a><br> </blockquote></div><br> _______________________________________________<br>Summit mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Summit@sna.providence.ri.us">Summit@sna.providence.ri.us</a><br>http://mail.sna.providence.ri.us/mailman/listinfo/summit_sna.providence.ri.us<br>SNA Website: http://sna.providence.ri.us/<br></div><br></div></body></html>