Tiverton Citizens for Change

Both of the local newspapers are reporting the achievement of the Budget Committee in bringing the town’s overall budget under the 4.5% levy cap. In the Sakonnet Times, Tom Killin Dalglish provides more detail about the list of cuts that committee member Cynthia Nebergall produced and the committee approved, but Marcia Pobzeznik’s Newport Daily [...]

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Herewith video corresponding with my liveblog of Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting.

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I’ll be liveblogging from the Town Council meeting, tonight, once again, although once again, the topic in which I’m mainly interested has been slated for the end of the meeting. Hopefully, we won’t be listening to people asserting ambiguities that don’t exist for over an hour tonight.
7:20 p.m.
During discussion of community block grants, the [...]

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If I may mix issues up a bit, watching the ebbs and flows of the national healthcare vote reminds me of happenings in Tiverton two years ago. As you’ll recall, financial town meetings (FTMs) have traditionally been poorly attended events. Indeed, three years ago, the quorum was barely achieved.
In 2008, though, [...]

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As the President of  TCC, I articulate policy and communications for TCC. I attempt to do so in an honest and straightforward manner.  Readers of local media see frequent orchestrated attacks on TCC and this letter will attempt to set the record straight. This note provides links to public statements, video, and letters describing our positions. Please [...]

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In case you missed it, here’s the extended conversation about municipal policy for exceeding the state-imposed tax cap from the March 8th meeting of the Town Council:

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It took me a day to work through my unexpectedly negative reaction to news that the Budget Committee had effectively proposed level funding of the school department next year. (With decreases in state aid likely, the leveled municipal funding probably represents a substantial cut.) What finally brought my emotional sense into focus was [...]

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The long discussion of Town Solicitor Andy Teitz’s initial draft of a proposed policy for exceeding the state-imposed cap on towns’ tax rates (PDF) brought forth some, well, poorly considered statements from folks who give the impression that they want the law to be different (in order to make it easier to increase taxes).
By way [...]

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It looks like a long agenda for the town council (PDF), this evening, and I know that at least 40% of the audience is here specifically for the council’s consideration of solicitor Andrew Teitz’s proposed policy for making it as easy as possible to raise property taxes beyond the state cap (currently 4.5%). I’ll [...]

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Back in January, the Town Council agreed to adopt a policy clarifying its role as the governing body for purposes of supermajority protections against exceeding the property tax cap provided by state law. While the initial proposal was to change state law to remove this protection altogether, the Town Council ultimately settled upon a course [...]

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It takes a little bit of time, but it’s an edifying experience to review the first School Committee meeting after last year’s FTM and then watch the video from the committee’s recent hearing about closing the high school. A theme emerged last year, solidified in this instruction from guidance counselor and unionist Lynn Nicholas:
You [...]

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Be sure to attend the Financial Town Meeting on May 8. Every vote will count to keep our taxes from going up even more this year. Tiverton is facing an unprecedented budget crises and we need to be pro-active.
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