EAST PROVIDENCE – Calling the redevelopment of the former Interstate 195 land in downtown Providence a “once in a lifetime opportunity,” Mayor Angel Taveras said that at least two things will need to happen in order for it to succeed: cooperation and fiscal recovery.
Taveras told the 160 business leaders at an economic outlook breakfast Wednesday that local and state officials, as well as local universities and the hospital network Lifespan, will need to work together to make the best use of the 19 acres made available with the relocation of I-195.
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Additionally, Taveras said the city needs to get back on “firm financial footing” as development takes place in order for the project to attract the proper investment.
The Taveras administration has initiated several cost-cutting measures to close the city’s projected $110 million deficit for the coming fiscal year, including closing schools and laying off teachers and police officers.
But the mayor recalled recently being told by a top administrator at Johnson & Wales University: “I can’t have a successful university in a failing city.”
Taveras agreed.
“We can’t look at this in a vacuum,” the mayor said. “We need a financially stable capital city.”
He said the development should also add taxable property to the city’s tax rolls, a concern since numerous nonprofit entities, such as Johnson & Wales, have been eyeing some of the land. “We have to make sure this land is used in a way that helps ease the tax burden for all the residents of the city,” he said.
Taveras was part of a panel discussion on the future of Providence’s Knowledge District. He joined Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee; Timothy Babineau, president and CEO of Rhode Island and Miriam hospitals; Barbara Bennett, senior vice president of law and policy at Johnson & Wales; and Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological science at Brown University.
Wing pointed to the spirit of cooperation in the Knowledge District. He said Brown has been working with the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College as they develop plans for a nursing building neighboring Brown’s new medical school.
Still, it was clear there were other areas where the panelists didn’t see eye to eye.
Chafee told the attendees he favored the legislative move to create a special commission to help sell the I-195 land, likening it to the Capital Center Commission that was formed in the 1980s to oversee the development of the Capital Center District.
But Taveras said he believed the legislation forming the commission – which has already passed in the Senate – would usurp too much power from the city, including zoning authority.
Babineau defended the hospitals when an audience member asked whether the tax-exempt Lifespan planned to make contributions so the city could maintain its services.
Babineau noted that the hospital gave $24 million in free health care in the last fiscal year as part of its charitable mission. He didn’t rule out additional contributions, acknowledging that is impossible to have a “thriving institution in a crumbling city.”
The event, sponsored by accounting firm Sullivan & Co., took place at the private club Squantum Association.
Babineau noted that the hospital gave $24 million in free health care in the last fiscal year as part of its charitable mission. — That’s nice and all and I really do appreciate that. However, there will be no need for this come 2014 when everyone will be required to pay for themselves. That $24 million in charitable care will evaporate. As a Providence resident, property and business owner, I very much appreciate all that the hospitals and colleges provide for our community. They are a source of vibrancy that we just can’t do without.
All I ask is that we all sit down and figure out a way to ease my tax burden for the services provided to these institutions. It wouldn’t be so bad, but more than 50% of city property is untaxable. If I’m being asked to make due with fewer teachers, police officers and (maybe) fire fighters and pay more than a 5% increase on my property taxes for property that’s currently losing value, I sort of want everyone else in the city to help out a bit too. Taveras has my support.
I also was at the economic outlook forum hosted by Sullivan & Company. Unlike previous years, it did nothing more then provide a forum for the academics on panel to showcase there ideas as to why they should have first digs in locating University related projects in the so-called knowlege district.This is laudable as long as these institutions show a willingness to pay the prevailing tax assessment. The current payment in lieu of taxes paid to the City by the colleges and hospitals negotiated by previous Mayor Cicillini is a farce..The City of Providence can never achieve fiscal integrity unless these non profits come up to the plate and do more. I hope Mayor Taveras and the Governor are not being influenced by the special interest Providence Chamber Of Commerce and the Providence Foundation to allow these tax exemps special treatmen and using the same old tired argument that income tax revenue will exceed non payment of real estate taxes by these entities.