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The Value of Transparency After the Investigative Report
In 2014, Tiverton Fact Check noted that the second-highest-paid employee in town was Police Lieutenant Timothy Panell. In fact, our transparency application shows that he was the second-highest-paid employee for three of the four years for which we have data (we don’t yet have fiscal …
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Tiverton 1st Set Out to Teach Taxpayers a Lesson
If the Town Council follows through with the Budget Committee’s threat to end trash pickup in Tiverton (or charge extra for it), it will be because elected officials and their supporters want to teach taxpayers not to attempt to control their taxes. But the real …
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Driggs and Cook: Response to Reckless Comments from Activist Budget Committee Member
We are responding to Tiverton Budget Committee Secretary, Deb Scanlon Janick’s dangerously reckless statements, made in her recent letter to the editor of this paper. We did not vote for the final Budget Committee recommended budget, as the record clearly shows. We voted against the …
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Nancy Driggs: Apologies Are Due to Tiverton Budget #2 Voters
Following the FTR vote the Budget Committee re-convened on June 9, 2016 to carry out its remand responsibility to “determine docket line items(s)”, as required by Tiverton’s Home Rule Charter. Some, including Louise Durfee, threatened not to show up and participate. However, all but one …
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Town Council Should Reject Budget Committee’s Vindictive Scheme to Kill Trash Pickup
The Tiverton Budget Committee has no authority to eliminate residential trash pickup, but in order to make a political statement with next year’s budget, a majority of its members voted to do just that. Tiverton residents should not be fooled. The threat of eliminating trash pickup is …
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No Need for Budget Committee’s Reckless Vengeance of Ending Trash Pickup
By far the most controversial move in the recent history of Tiverton budgeting was the Budget Committee’s decision to reduce the budget for rubbish/recycling collection by $500,000 — from $644,697 to $144,697. Effectively, if the Town Council follows the budget, this move kills the long-standing …
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Strategy for Addressing the 0.9% Budget #2 Remand to the Budget Committee
Now that their petition has won at the 2016 financial town referendum (FTR), the supporters of the 0.9% Budget #2 are being accused of unfairly saddling elected officials with the task of finding reductions that they don’t believe should be made. The accusation itself is …
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0.9% Budget #2 Wins Again
Preliminary numbers: Budget #1: 879 (40%) Budget #2: 1,220 (55%) Budget #3: 100 (5%) Provisional ballots yet to be counted are not numerous enough to change the outcome.
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Information on This Week’s FTR
Early Voting at Town Hall Thursday, May 19, and Friday, May 20, 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Financial Town Referendum at the High School Saturday, May 21, 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Budget Options 0.9% tax increase budget #2 3.5% tax increase budget #1 1.7% …
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A 0.9% Increase for Fiscal Year 2017
Tiverton’s taxes are still way too high, with a rate that is 38% higher than the average for every surrounding town in Rhode Island and Massachusetts ($19.14 versus $13.91 per $1,000 of property value). Any long-term plan for the health of the town must take …
