It took 18 months for the 17-member Aquidneck Island Planning Commission to produce a 350-page master plan for 10 miles of coast on the west side of the island, a stretch of land that includes the Newport Naval Station, as well as various recreational, commercial and residential properties.
The plan provides a road map for the development and redevelopment of land in Portsmouth, Middletown and Newport. Its goal is to create sustainable economic progress while improving congested roadways and protecting irreplaceable natural resources.
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All the key stakeholders have signed on – both U.S. Sens. Lincoln Chafee and Jack Reed, along with U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy and the elected officials of the three towns in question. The issue, as it always is with grand visions such as this, is follow-through (and this means money as well as political will).
Rhode Island has the ability to get large ideas implemented, such as Downcity, Quonset Point and T.F. Green Airport (the runway extension remains to be seen).
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Aquidneck Island to enhance its position as one of the nation’s coolest places to live, work and play. The time for action is now.
Fix tax rules
Has there ever been a tax policy more punitive than the way Providence calculates late fees and interest on delinquent property tax payments?
Maybe, but we haven’t seen it. That’s why City Councilman John Igliozzi is to be commended for his proposal last week to create a Tax Interest Amnesty Week and Tax Policy Reform. Igliozzi would designate Feb. 6 through 10 next year as days in which “any taxpayer who is delinquent on any taxes owed to the city of Providence, shall have all interest and penalties waived by the city if the taxes (principal) owed are paid in full.”
Of course, there would be no need for such an event if the city did not brand taxpayers as delinquent for an entire tax year once they have been late with any single quarterly payment. Imagine the uproar if mortgage companies started charging interest for an entire year after one late payment.
To his credit, Igliozzi did not stop with the one-time fix of a tax amnesty. He also would change the law to calculate interest on late taxes “from the last date of payment not from July 1, of each taxing year.”
At a time when many in the city are talking about curbing spending and finding that it does not need to fill open positions, and as all the Downcity projects come on-line and boost Providence’s tax base, it is time to pass this legislation. We do not need tax policy whose continuation is more than a joking matter to a city trying to compete with its neighbors for new residents.
