It seems to me that Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline would put himself in a better negotiating position with the governor, state legislators and the city’s private colleges and universities if he first went to Providence taxpayers and said to them:
“I am sorry to have to do this, but the city is broke and I am going to have to raise property taxes just a bit.”
Sure, in a couple of years it will end up on an opponent’s campaign leaflet or on a television commercial. Such a move presents an obvious political pitfall.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
But an even more powerful campaign message could trump that of a property-tax increase. Straighten out the city’s finances – not with smoke and mirrors, but for real – and you’ve got your own impressive headline for campaign literature;
“After years in the red, Cicilline balances city budget.” Now that’s a formula for attracting votes.
This is the dilemma Mayor Cicilline has on his hands.
It is a budget shortfall estimated to be at least $45 million, but possibly much higher. It is a problem exacerbated by a series of bad city contracts and rapidly rising health-care costs.
It is a problem that – unless aggressively addressed – is only going to get worse.
It is not the mayor’s fault. It was there when he took office. For too long we all heard about growing financial problems in the capital city, including a staggering un-funded pension liability. But rivers were being moved and a mammoth mall rose from a parking lot.
Things looked good. People looked the other way.
But Mayor Cicilline can’t look the other way. And to his credit, he isn’t. He is on the hook for making this financial mess go away and he knows it.
The mayor has solid ideas for addressing the problem. Many have been packaged in the form of legislation proposed at the General Assembly. For example, he would like to increase taxes on meals and beverages and on hotel rooms. Cicilline would like to see a 5-percent surcharge on the gross receipts of commercial parking lots and garages downtown.
There are lots of fees he would like to increase, like licenses for liquor stores and bars and the fees for recording deeds, mortgages and liens. Some of those fees, he points out, have not been raised in more than 50 years.
Cicilline has also said that he wants to see the city allowed to mark up the cost of the water it sells to so many other cities and towns throughout the state. He’d also like permission to take a more aggressive approach to some of its investing practices, exchanging some fixed-rate bonds for variable-rate bonds.
These are terrific ideas. They show innovation. They show creativity. They show a willingness to consider hard choices.
But the mayor has left out one very obvious idea. That is, the idea of raising property taxes in the capital city – a city that is among the highest taxed in the state already.
It’s generally the last thing a politician wants to do, especially following property revaluations in recent years. But it’s the fastest way to boost a city or town’s coffers.
In the case of Providence, tapping into residents for a little bit more would do more than that. It would send an important message. It would suggest that the city is doing its share and that its residents recognize the fiscal problem facing the city and accept that they too must contribute to the solution.
Cicilline hasn’t hesitated to ask for help. Those bills in the General Assembly would cost taxpayers across the state. And the colleges and universities are also being asked to give more money – more often.
These are fair requests on the part of the mayor. He has every right to ask.
But you can’t blame legislators or college presidents if they ask what the city is doing to help itself?
Darrell West, a professor of political science and director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University, has long studied how voters react to politicians through polls and other research.
There is precedent, suggests West, regarding when a property-tax increase makes sense.
“It is common if you are going to raise taxes to do it in the first year of a four-year term,” says West. “That way, people have three years to forget about it and you can run on a balanced budget.”
As for whether people from throughout the state would be more likely to want to help Providence if the city were first helping itself…
“People outside of Providence want to see Providence get its own fiscal house in order,” he says. “They want to see the city take the necessary steps.”
Cicilline has said that he would raise taxes only as a last resort.
Call it a last resort. Call it a savvy political move. Call it the right thing to do. Call it whatever you want. Either way, it seems to make sense.
