July 1, 2009
All-Around Revenue-Per-Resident for Rhode Island Cities and Towns
By adding in a few other sources to the figures for residential, commercial and industrial tax levies from the previous post, it's possible to come up with a meaningful estimate of total local revenue-per-resident available to each Rhode Island city and town.
The set of sources included in the table below are...
- Residential Property Tax Levy
- Commercial and Industrial Property Tax Levy
- State Education Aid (with money for regional districts apportioned by population)
- State "Payments in lieu of taxes" (which are different from General Revenue Sharing)
- Fire district levies for the towns that have them (derived from Municipal Affairs data available here and here).
One again, the floor is open to those who would like to offer local insight into how well they think their community is or is not doing. Where are the problems with revenue, and where are they with spending...
| Municipality | Residential Levy | Commercial/ Industrial Levy | Education Aid | PILOT | Fire District Levies | Total | Total per Resident |
| New Shoreham | $6,231,198 | $604,721 | $106,345 | $0 | $0 | $6,942,264 | $6,819.51 |
| East Greenwich | $31,382,267 | $5,296,400 | $1,949,761 | $7,940 | $4,116,926 | $42,753,294 | $3,208.74 |
| Jamestown | $16,406,255 | $546,534 | $531,908 | $0 | $0 | $17,484,697 | $3,174.42 |
| Barrington | $44,075,086 | $1,498,396 | $2,599,526 | $53,865 | $0 | $48,226,873 | $2,940.84 |
| Newport | $40,355,194 | $15,540,882 | $11,871,080 | $658,326 | $0 | $68,425,482 | $2,880.83 |
| Middletown | $26,495,287 | $9,678,806 | $10,497,116 | $0 | $0 | $46,671,209 | $2,874.20 |
| West Greenwich | $9,188,519 | $4,877,639 | $3,893,345 | $0 | $0 | $17,959,503 | $2,814.09 |
| Westerly | $49,194,534 | $6,074,013 | $6,843,077 | $132,288 | $3,033,734 | $65,277,646 | $2,797.41 |
| Central Falls | $6,499,901 | $2,441,721 | $43,494,684 | $0 | $0 | $52,436,306 | $2,795.56 |
| Charlestown | $18,411,735 | $628,185 | $2,138,842 | $0 | $1,161,562 | $22,340,324 | $2,760.11 |
| Hopkinton | $13,421,164 | $1,184,823 | $6,375,407 | $0 | $922,163 | $21,903,557 | $2,745.49 |
| Foster | $8,073,902 | $865,586 | $3,134,313 | $270 | $0 | $12,074,071 | $2,686.11 |
| Portsmouth | $34,990,389 | $3,378,376 | $6,700,042 | $0 | $469,642 | $45,538,449 | $2,677.79 |
| Little Compton | $8,816,111 | $233,479 | $368,810 | $0 | $0 | $9,418,400 | $2,668.10 |
| North Kingstown | $50,529,940 | $7,563,806 | $11,986,005 | $6,836 | $0 | $70,086,587 | $2,632.56 |
| Providence | $126,320,027 | $109,849,157 | $194,109,756 | $20,124,158 | $0 | $450,403,098 | $2,620.31 |
| Richmond | $11,781,571 | $1,125,047 | $6,316,890 | $627 | $487,037 | $19,711,172 | $2,582.02 |
| Glocester | $16,559,354 | $1,260,807 | $7,225,858 | $0 | $1,172,352 | $26,218,371 | $2,497.46 |
| Exeter | $9,516,802 | $964,257 | $3,767,674 | $0 | $1,002,655 | $15,251,388 | $2,469.46 |
| Narragansett | $35,239,211 | $3,075,835 | $1,897,159 | $0 | $245,877 | $40,458,082 | $2,458.26 |
| Warwick | $105,379,974 | $64,148,344 | $37,626,000 | $862,977 | $0 | $208,017,295 | $2,449.11 |
| South Kingstown | $52,242,106 | $6,459,733 | $10,548,698 | $121,138 | $2,111,876 | $71,483,551 | $2,448.32 |
| Tiverton | $27,393,724 | $2,181,018 | $5,932,058 | $0 | $771,052 | $36,277,852 | $2,409.05 |
| Lincoln | $26,341,821 | $14,305,179 | $7,403,268 | $0 | $4,176,962 | $52,227,230 | $2,371.16 |
| Coventry | $46,659,667 | $7,909,545 | $20,075,081 | $0 | $6,995,106 | $81,639,399 | $2,370.14 |
| Scituate | $14,630,732 | $6,446,351 | $3,407,183 | $0 | $0 | $24,484,266 | $2,260.57 |
| Warren | $15,154,909 | $2,927,764 | $6,752,877 | $0 | $0 | $24,835,550 | $2,247.56 |
| North Smithfield | $16,445,109 | $3,544,559 | $4,834,237 | $38,817 | $0 | $24,862,722 | $2,209.23 |
| West Warwick | $33,119,054 | $10,884,478 | $20,440,547 | $0 | $0 | $64,444,079 | $2,204.42 |
| Johnston | $41,208,491 | $10,126,741 | $10,915,364 | $0 | $0 | $62,250,596 | $2,178.19 |
| Cranston | $101,633,398 | $33,630,811 | $35,580,911 | $3,583,905 | $0 | $174,429,025 | $2,175.17 |
| Burrillville | $16,914,506 | $1,262,835 | $13,854,743 | $78,891 | $2,386,221 | $34,497,196 | $2,097.48 |
| Bristol | $28,288,884 | $3,202,795 | $13,745,313 | $560,835 | $0 | $45,797,827 | $2,036.18 |
| Smithfield | $27,295,469 | $8,661,278 | $5,743,568 | $437,602 | $0 | $42,137,917 | $1,986.42 |
| East Providence | $44,567,063 | $22,748,792 | $26,888,254 | $61,629 | $0 | $94,265,738 | $1,939.46 |
| Pawtucket | $47,200,154 | $21,647,143 | $67,023,559 | $330,377 | $0 | $136,201,233 | $1,889.45 |
| Woonsocket | $23,083,073 | $11,098,260 | $47,661,613 | $173,199 | $43,438 | $82,059,583 | $1,889.12 |
| Cumberland | $40,650,687 | $4,447,466 | $13,257,009 | $139 | $5,841,193 | $64,196,494 | $1,877.58 |
| North Providence | $34,525,710 | $10,288,392 | $13,382,872 | $533,146 | $0 | $58,730,120 | $1,792.19 |
Any chance of reformatting that table so it's legible all the way across?
Posted by: Bob Newton at July 1, 2009 6:16 PMHas anchor rising had a chart where they show the education aid divided by the number of students in the town? That's always a fun one to ask the General Assembly about why students in some towns are worth more than students in other towns. Shouldn't all towns' students be treated equally?
Posted by: Patrick at July 1, 2009 9:22 PMI'll be waiting to see how this gets spun for "tax effort" in an attempt to get even more money for Providence.
A true reflection of tax cost per resident would include water and sewer district costs. Plus, don't forget, for rural and some suburban residents, me, for instance, there are also costs associated with garbage pickup, ISDS and wells. If you are going to be "fair" you need to put a realistic "tax" allowance in there even though those costs are paid to private concerns.
In Florida, I get tax bills from more damn quangos - I guess reducing property tax by splitting services out and under various taxing entities looks more palatable. Add'em all up and add in the zero FL income tax and it is still a bargain with respect to RI.
Posted by: chuckR at July 2, 2009 1:08 PMData. Data. Beautiful, lovely data. Ah hah! Ah hah!
"In Florida, I get tax bills from more damn quangos"
Wow. That sounds like a constitutional challenge waiting to happen.
Posted by: Monique at July 2, 2009 7:04 PM"In Florida, I get tax bills from more damn quangos"
... although, on second thought, does that mean that some services have been privatized? With a corresponding reduction in the cost to deliver those services? H'mm ...
Posted by: Monique at July 2, 2009 7:09 PMMonique
The entities don't appear - to me at least - to differ from the Narragansett Bay Commission. I'm not a certifiable Political Scientist so there may be some difference not evident to the mere mortal. In past years, I haven't been there long enough each year to get into whether these entities are more efficient. And nothing stands still - incremental costs due to demands of a greater population are probably higher than baseline costs.
Posted by: chuckR at July 3, 2009 3:20 PM