Tiverton

A Packed House for Town Council

By Justin Katz | January 25, 2010 |

The town hall is pretty well packed, tonight, probably for some combination of the “pay as you throw” trash pickup and the solicitor’s intention to suggest an anti-tax-payer interpretation of the requirements for exceeding the 3050 tax cap on municipal budgets. Representatives of RISC are here for the latter. Representative Jay Edwards (D, Tiverton) is…

Mainstreet Loses an Anchor and the Council Looks to Tax

By Justin Katz | January 25, 2010 |

So, Bank of America is abandoning the Main Street location in North Tiverton that it has inhabited for decades (most of the time as Fleet bank). According to somebody in a position to know, the branch remains profitable, but corporate executives have analyzed the prospects of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and determined that there will be…

Budget Season Begins

By Justin Katz | January 12, 2010 |

Tonight’s the first meeting at which the Tiverton School Committee will address next year’s budget. The upshot is that Superintendent Bill Rearick is offering, as an initial budget, an increase at the state cap (4.5%). Of course, he included in last year’s budget “surprise” federal “stimulus” cash, so this budget is actually 7.13% above the…

Rule by Funding and Memoranda

By Justin Katz | January 7, 2010 |

I’m one of two people in the audience of an “emergency” Tiverton School Committee meeting, which was called in order to approve a memorandum of understanding from the Rhode Island Department of Education for the state’s Race to the Top application, and the sense that I’m getting from the discussion is not encouraging. Here’s the…

Tiverton’s Forthcoming Garbage Tax

By Justin Katz | December 28, 2009 |

It appears to have fallen through the online cracks, but I’ve got the following letter in the current issue of the Sakonnet Times: On December 14, Tiverton’s town council meeting included a public hearing concerning a proposed “pay as you throw” trash program to fund the closure of the town landfill in five or so…

Garbage Goes Straight to Video

By Justin Katz | December 21, 2009 | Comments Off on Garbage Goes Straight to Video

Mostly for the edification of Tiverton residents, I’ve posted the portion of the last town council meeting that represented the public hearing on a pay-as-you-throw trash program. Nine of the 10 video clips are in the extended entry.

Garbage Talk

By Justin Katz | December 14, 2009 |

There’s an unusually large crowd for tonight’s town council meeting… unless, of course, the recession has made this a more common form of entertainment than was the case back before I stopped attending regularly. It seems a handful of attendees are here to discuss increases in mooring fees (for late payment). Hopefully, a greater number…

Bad Government, Sneaky Taxes, and Garbage

By Justin Katz | December 9, 2009 |

This coming Monday, December 14, the Tiverton Town Council will (hopefully) be hearing from residents concerning a proposed “pay as you throw” program for garbage pickup. The nutshell background is that (despite regular and significant annual tax increases) the town has not been putting aside adequate resources to close the landfill when it runs out…

Don’t Scheme on Taxes, Simplify

By Justin Katz | December 7, 2009 |

URI Economic Professor Edward Mazze’s tax-cutting suggestions sound reasonable enough, but one can’t help but be suspicious of the urge to control: Murphy said of Mazze’s plan, “I want to be open to it.” Murphy said he was particularly interested in Mazze’s proposal geared toward revitalizing local downtown business districts. Murphy said he remembers a…

Tiverton School Committee Merit Pay Workshop Video, 6

By Justin Katz | November 29, 2009 |