PAWTUCKET – The City Council last week moved to decrease the size of a proposed supplemental tax increase by about one-third, with members saying they’ll work with Mayor Donald Grebien’s administration to find cost savings to make up the difference in lost revenue by the end of the fiscal year June 30.
The increase per $1,000 of assessed property value will be 25 cents instead of 35 cents, from $20.89 to $21.14. The resulting increase for the majority of residential taxpayers is less than $50 per year.
Finance Committee Chairman Mark Wildenhain said he wished former Chairman John Barry III was still here to deliver the bad news, particularly in the middle of a pandemic, but this was what had to be done to make up for the unavoidable woes of this past pandemic year. The committee asked the administration for some alternatives to the full increase, including tweaking tax percentage rates. It won’t be easy to make up the difference of about $600,000 in revenue, he said, “but nothing’s easy right now.”