Group of Woonsocket Residents File Suit to Block Supplemental Tax

Group of Woonsocket Residents File Suit to Block Supplemental Tax

A group of Woonsocket taxpayers have filed a class action lawsuit to block the City of Woonsocket from full implementation of a supplemental tax on city property, claiming the supplemental tax is not in compliance with the legislation that authorized the additional tax.

The lawsuit was filed last week in RI Superior Court by taxpayer advocate attorney Robert Senville on behalf of a group of Woonsocket taxpayers, "contesting the legality of the supplemental property tax bills sent out last month by the city. The lawsuit contends the supplemental tax bills are unlawful because of several factors," according to a press release issued by RI Taxpayers.

Rhode Island Taxpayers advocates for honest, effective, and fiscally sound government on behalf of Rhode Island taxpayers. Rhode Island Taxpayers, formerly RI Statewide Coalition, founded in 2003, was spun out of a South County oriented watchdog group called the “RI Shoreline Coalition."

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Unlawful

According to RI Taxpayers, the legislation approved by the General Assembly last spring authorized Woonsocket to issue a supplemental tax "contingent upon the city of Woonsocket's realization of a total amount of no less than $3.75 million in savings resulting from municipal enactment and concessions from collective bargaining agreements". However, the lawsuit points out that at least $2.9 million of the projected savings being claimed by the Budget Commission can be or is currently the subject of a legal challenge and that, therefore, it appears that these potential savings, which certainly have not been realized at this early date, may be at risk of never being realized as required by the state law.

"It is not complicated,” says Woonsocket taxpayer James Cournoyer, who is one of the named plaintiffs. “The savings have not yet been realized; rather, they have only been projected. Thus, the supplemental tax should not yet be issued."

"This is the right course of action for the already burdened taxpayers of Woonsocket,” adds RI Taxpayers spokesperson Monique Chartier. “What makes it further troubling is the fact that this supplemental tax bill is not a one time increase, but now becomes the basis for an increased property tax rate going forward. The residents can’t absorb more taxes, period."

RI Taxpayers, formerly the RI Statewide Coalition, has partnered with the Woonsocket taxpayers group in the past, in particular, during the public outcry over the origins of the multi-million dollar school budget deficit that accelerated the city to the brink of bankruptcy two years ago.