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The town has already collected $4 million of a possible $13 million in extra money hidden from the budget process.
News & Commentary
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Tiverton Truth Flash
Off-Budget Spending Is Already an Issue in Tiverton
Perhaps the central concern TTA has with the changes to the Home Rule Charter that the Town Council has placed on next week's ballot is one of trust. With the gambling revenue (Question 10), for example, council members have shifted what they say the change would do as well as what they think it should do. Among the latest assertions has been that the council can't spend money off the budget by law. Put aside the fact that the council's lawyer, Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto, has been arguing the exact opposite for more than a year. Section 203 of the Tiverton Home Rule Charter permits the Town Council to spend up to $500,000 at a time without voter approval. In 2014, the Town Council decided to buy the gas station at Grinnell's Beach using this provision, and they made that decision in executive session (that is, without public debate). But that isn't all. Among the matters discussed by town's Budget Committee earlier this year was the use of police detail fees to buy cars for the force. Whenever the town's officers are present on a non-official detail, such as road construction, the town receives a fee for the officer's time and for his or her vehicle. The practice has been to treat this money as a negative expense, rather than revenue that appears in the budget process. Another example is the stamp tax, or the money that the town collects when real estate is transferred from one party to another. At a…
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