Bad Math
- Mike Clifford
- Jan 3, 2018
- 2 min read
The RI Attorney General recently ruled that the Town Council violated the Open Meetings Act when it held a July meeting and approved an amendment to the budget that needlessly taxed residents an additional $100,000 (for a potential shortfall in state aid for education, an issue that has since been resolved). The Town Council has been ordered to re-vote the entire issue and now has the opportunity to do right by the taxpayer, nullify the needless tax increase and adjust or refund taxpayers' 4th quarter billing. There has been resistance to doing so based on statements by the Town Council President John Beauregard and Town Administrator Gary Ezovski that the cost of mailing new tax bills would be $11,000. After reading that number I emailed the town finance director and learned that the cost of mailing all tax bills (including motor vehicle and tangible taxes, which are all sent separately) in July was $7,001.
Question of the Day: If roughly 12,000 tax bills cost only $7,001.30 to process, then how could it possibly cost $11,000 to send out only 4,581 tax bills?
Consider the following: $7001.30 covered the cost of processing ALL tax bills in July. Real Estate 4581 properties (includes Commercial RE) Motor Vehicle 7478 cars Tangible 572 items Total July bills 12,631 billable items
Assuming some people may own more than one property or more than one vehicle let’s say only 12,000 bills were sent out.
There is no need to re-send Motor vehicle tax bills. The tax rate on motor vehicles is a fixed rate and would not be affected. If the tax rate on tangibles and real estate were both changed then 5,153 corrected bills would need to be sent out. If the #Council lowered the tax rate on just real estate then only 4,581 bills would need to be processed.
Bottom line- How can it cost more to send out roughly 1/3 of the tax bills sent out in July?
I asked the question at last night’s Town Council meeting. They were unable to answer the question because the #Finance Director was not present. When I get a written reply with the numbers I will post it. In the meantime, this remains a puzzle to me.
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