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Health & Fitness

City of Newport Raises Taxes for 20th year in a Row

The city council raised property taxes again on Wednesday night – for the 20th year in a row.

  • FY15 – 3.3% tax increase
  • FY14 – 2.9% tax increase
  • FY13 – 2.5% tax increase
  • FY12 – 4.1% tax increase
  • FY11 – 0.4% tax increase
  • FY10 – 2.9% tax increase
  • FY09 – 3.8% tax increase
  • FY08 – 2.6% tax increase
  • FY07 – 4.3% tax increase
  • FY06 – 4.0% tax increase
  • FY05 – 2.0% tax increase
  • FY04 – 2.0% tax increase
  • FY03 – 2.6% tax increase
  • FY02 – 4.0% tax increase
  • FY01 – 2.4% tax increase
  • FY00 – 1.9% tax increase
  • FY99 – 1.9% tax increase
  • FY98 – 1.2% tax increase
  • FY97 – 5.5% tax increase
  • FY96 – 3.0% tax increase

Moreover, for eight of the last ten years (and for the last four years in a row), Newport’s tax increases exceeded the consumer price index.    For the ten years before that (1996-2005), the trend had been reversed.  That is, in all but three years between 96-05, our tax levy increases were lower than the CPI. 

The modern tax trend is even worse when you consider that the city has also nearly doubled water and sewer taxes on Newport residents in the most recent time frame.  

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I had hoped we could do better, and so I opposed Wednesday's property tax hike, the same way I opposed the property tax hike last year with Councilors Kate Leonard, Marco Camacho and Jeanne-Marie Napolitano.

It’s not that we oppose Newport's spending priorities.  We all support better school spending to address educational deficiencies.  And I feel confident that the School Committee is dealing with its spending outliers.

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Of course, some city spending seems excessive.  I feel that we deliberately over-budget for unbooked “conferences and training” to leave slack in the budget; and I still don’t understand the city manager’s $50,000 City Ambassador program budget, but overall, we are spending appropriately (Sister City program aside). 

At some point, the council needs to recognize that the answer is not tax increases.

Yes, we need to increase revenue; but not by raising taxes.  We need to identify new non-tax revenue.

For the last eighteen months, I have proposed a dozen non-property tax revenue initiatives to my colleagues on the city council.  They have all been shot down by the council leadership, either in backroom discussions, or by denying a "second", or by an unfavorable vote.

These were solid ideas (not perfect, but solid), and ranged from raising mooring rates for the first time in ten years to re-setting the Newport Yacht Club’s lease from 2.5% of assessed value to the 5% of assessed value called for in their lease agreement with the city.

I even asked the city to correct the grossly under-assessed Festival Field tax valuation.  You will recall that the property was sold for $30 million just a few months after it was assessed at $11.8 million.  This mistake cost city residents over half a million dollars over a 2 year period. This mistake was great for the out-of-state owners of the property, but hurt Festival Field residents AND Newport taxpayers.

Unfortunately, each idea was blocked by council leadership.

Some have said that these ideas might have succeeded if I used a better “tone.”  If that’s true, well, then it says as much about the pettiness of 3 of my colleagues as it does about me. 

But as the city starts a new fiscal year – and the politicians start a new city council election campaign – let’s hope that voters remember Newport’s 20 consecutive years of tax increases.  Newport can do things better.  We just need better elected officials.

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