Tiverton Citizens for Change

As you can review in my liveblogging of last Monday’s Town Council meeting, Council Member Jay Lambert was very clear about his expectation that any documents that the town might send to Providence seeking a waiver — or even “inquiring” about the possibility of a waiver — would have to use the Budget Committee’s docket numbers, which would have to indicate that the town does not, in fact, require a waiver. Well, wouldn’t you know, in a document that Town Administrator Jim Goncalo handed out at his peculiar meeting with Town Treasurer Phil DiMattia and Budget Committee Chairman Jeff Caron, the documents are filled out using unofficial numbers.

Here is the official “notice of proposed tax rate change,” in conformance with the Budget Committee’s numbers and bearing Town Council President Don Bollin’s signature, dated April 5 (click the image for a larger picture):

Note the total levy cited as $33,608,136 (including car taxes) and the proposed levy increase of 4.4%. Now, here’s what Mr. Goncalo has sent, or was proposing to send, to Jill Barrette, Acting Chief of the Division of Property Valuation and Municipal Finance, in Providence:

Note that the property tax levy is cited as $35,097,367, an increase of 9.04%, and that Bollin’s signature is absent, even though the date of April 6th appears next to his name. A review of Goncalo’s entire mailing (PDF) shows that he has filled out all of the requisite forms for a tax-cap waiver — even though he claims not to be seeking one — as if, well, as if he were authorized to stand in the place of the Budget Committee.

I’ve been unable to get information from Ms. Barrette about the precedent and justification for responding to “letters of inquiry” for tax cap waivers. If it’s not a certified waiver, how can the state government provide a theoretical number for which a waiver would be issued? Presumably, if there is no process for promises of waivers, then there’s no requirement that the documentation requesting them has to be legitimate reflections of a town’s actual budget processes. If that’s the case, though, there doesn’t appear to be much legitimate about the entire inquiry, to begin with.