THE PROVIDENCE CITY COUNCIL on Thursday unanimously approved 30-year extensions to the city's tax and lease agreements with ProvPort Inc. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
PROVIDENCE – After previously postponing a decision on controversial tax and lease agreements with the city’s primary port operator, Providence officials reversed course and approved the deals after all. The Providence City Council’s unanimous votes Thursday authorize 30-year extensions to tax and lease agreements with ProvPort Inc. The tax treaty requires a second vote which…
This doesn’t make sense for the taxpayers. If you read this carefully: ProvPort (which is run by the Waterson family which owns Waterson Terminal Services which manages the port) owns the land and leases this land to the Providence Redevelopment Agency (PRA) which in turn issues tax-free bonds to pay the city and then subleases the same land back to ProvPort.
Sounds like the PRA issues taxpayer backed bonds to A) make the payments (in lieu of property taxes) to PVD on behalf of ProvPort and B) to make the land lease payments to ProvPort.
Sounds like taxpayers are floating bonds to pay PVD (i.e., themselves) property taxes that ProvPort should be paying.
Hopefully, the new City Council Members will be smart enough to vote against this Ponzi scheme.
Want to share this story? Click Here to purchase a link that allows anyone to read it on any device whether or not they are a subscriber.
This doesn’t make sense for the taxpayers. If you read this carefully: ProvPort (which is run by the Waterson family which owns Waterson Terminal Services which manages the port) owns the land and leases this land to the Providence Redevelopment Agency (PRA) which in turn issues tax-free bonds to pay the city and then subleases the same land back to ProvPort.
Sounds like the PRA issues taxpayer backed bonds to A) make the payments (in lieu of property taxes) to PVD on behalf of ProvPort and B) to make the land lease payments to ProvPort.
Sounds like taxpayers are floating bonds to pay PVD (i.e., themselves) property taxes that ProvPort should be paying.
Hopefully, the new City Council Members will be smart enough to vote against this Ponzi scheme.