Some people waited two hours to speak at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Rhode Island House Committee on Municipal Government and Housing. Some people couldn’t wait and left before they had their chance.
Rep. Stephen Casey, the Woonsocket Democrat and committee chair, shuffled the six sign-up sheets in his hands, each page filled with the names of Providence residents who wanted to testify at a hearing on a bill that would raise the the city’s levy, or total collected tax revenue, above the statewide 4% cap in fiscal year 2026. The hearing room and overflow area were packed with about 100 people.
As the meeting stretched past 7 p.m., Casey opted for speed over procedure, and told people to leave the microphones on when they came up to testify.
“Don’t anybody touch anything. Just get up there and talk,” he said.
Providence residents had a lot to say about the bill sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Kislak, and three other Democratic reps in the city: Scott Slater, Edith Ajello and Nathan Biah. The bill’s 27-word amendment to the state’s municipal tax law would authorize the capital city to hike its levy on owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied residential properties, commercial properties, tangible properties, and natural growth, or the increase in value of properties over time.
Kislak’s bill would allow Providence to go up to 8% more than last year. Mayor Brett Smiley is proposing a 7.5% increase, announced April 16 in his proposed fiscal 2026 budget.
The impact would hit property owners depending on the kind of home they own and if they live there. The average tax bill for owners who live in their single-family homes or condominium units would go up 4%. But the increase would be 16% for homes with two to five families, whether owner-occupied or not.
“We think that this is, in fact, an extraordinary ask,” Smiley told lawmakers. “But it’s because there are extraordinary circumstances. The last time the city of Providence was at the State House to ask for this was over 15 years ago during the 2008 financial crisis.”
The budgeting maneuver is meant to cushion city finances for fiscal year 2026 against an expensive settlement with the state education department to resolve past underfunding of Providence public schools. But compliance with that November 2024 settlement, which accounts for $11 million in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget and additional investments in subsequent fiscal years, depends on state lawmakers’ approval.
“There are a lot of reasons that Providence has this need to increase the levy,” Kislak said in her introduction of the bill, citing the agreement with the Rhode Island Department of Education as “the most immediate.”
“We will be fixing…30 years of underfunding of our schools in just three years,” Kislak said. “We should do it. It’s painful, and it’s so important to the city.”
No Plan B
Without the General Assembly’s approval, Smiley has said his budget will need to return to the Providence City Council and substantial revisions made. The council is still engaged in the budgeting process, with a final version emerging in June. Ahead of Kislak’s April 2 introduction of the bill, the council voted to affirm up to an 8% increase.
Democratic Rep. David Morales of Providence — a 26-year-old lawmaker who’s floated the idea of running for mayor himself one day — wondered why no Plan B was in place.
“Has your administration prepared an alternative budget in the case that the committee does not move forward with this levy proposal?” Morales asked Smiley.
“No, we have not,” the mayor replied.
We will be fixing…30 years of underfunding of our schools in just three years. We should do it. It’s painful, and it’s so important to the city.
Morales also asked Smiley if he would stay for the entirety of the hearing, “because we have dozens of working people across the city of Providence that are here to share their perspective,” Morales said.
Smiley replied: “I appreciate that. I’ll stay as long as I can.”
In a phone interview Thursday, Morales said Smiley left before residents had their turn to testify but encountered residents outside the committee hearing room. A WPRI-12 report on Tuesday confirmed that Smiley spent time talking to residents for some time in the State House rotunda, explaining his budget in detail.
“Mayor (and also in a different spot I) stayed for hours talking to people in the hallway,” Kislak said via text message Wednesday. “We should pass this bill plus additional revenue bills that will give the city council and mayor additional flexibility in their budget negotiations.”
Some of the additional revenue bills Kislak previously mentioned include taxes on parking lots and Airbnbs.
Josh Estrella, a spokesperson for the mayor, said in a statement Wednesday, “Mayor Smiley has been attending community meetings in every ward of Providence collecting feedback from neighbors and explaining the critical importance of this legislation and he was glad to have stayed at the State House last night to answer every question community members had.”
Morales was disappointed in Smiley’s showing before the committee, he said. “I think he was dismissive…He opted to talk about the complex formula as to how one’s property taxes are calculated, which I think was an easy cop-out from actually answering any questions.”
A threatened ‘speck of green’
Many people testifying Tuesday were addressing lawmakers for the first time, Morales said, and some spoke through Spanish interpreters. Residents worried about tax hikes being passed to renters, making apartments unaffordable and ultimately leading to displacement.
Charles Pinning, a landlord and part-time writing professor at the University of Rhode Island, explained how the levy hike would affect his tenants: “These people who have spoken, ‘Oh, yeah, when I rent the apartment, I will pass it on to them.’ They’re absolutely correct.”
Providence residents viewed the committee as an important blockade against the tax hike’s passage, arguing that the City Council would likely approve the measure. But the House committee emphasized its role is to merely allow the levy hike to happen. The venue for resisting the hike itself, they suggested, was at City Council hearings instead.
Casey, the chair, at times told public testimonies to stay on track, and not stray into discussions of the city’s housing market or general critiques of Smiley. He told one man his testimony’s content was better suited to a Facebook post.
“This bill has been held for further study,” Casey said. “Everybody needs to relax. We’re not going to vote on it today.”
Fixed-income homeowners, including senior citizens, said a 25% additional property tax exemption for senior citizens under Smiley’s budget was insufficient. Sandra Lee, a low-income senior citizen and 25-year resident of the Mount Hope neighborhood, said her property assessment went up 100% in the most recent valuation, and her lot 521%.
“I own a little home there, and I own a little speck of green,” Lee said. “My right to quiet enjoyment is being threatened, and I don’t know what to do. I feel completely powerless.”
City councilors host community meetings
The bill was held for further study, as is standard practice on an initial hearing. Based on conversations with his colleagues before and after Tuesday’s hearing, Morales thinks the committee vote will not be unanimous.
Morales said Thursday he was proud of the people in his city who showed up to be heard, and hoped his fellow committee members were listening closely.
“I hope that they recognize that these stories of hardships are going to become reality if we’re not conscientious about our own decisions when we vote on this,” Morales said.
At the hearing, Rep. José Batista of Providence told fellow Democrat Smiley that he understands how the city has been wedged between a multimillion-dollar rock and the hard place of a tax increase. But he said he would not support the levy hike, because he thinks the city is not doing enough to extract money from the city’s wealthy nonprofits like Brown University.
Smiley, in part, agreed. Nearly half of the city’s property is tax-exempt, he said, adding the city is “burdened with a hugely disproportionate share of the tax-exempt properties in Rhode Island: the colleges, the hospitals, government, churches and certain nonprofits.”
“It is, I know, very popular, and certainly the size of their endowment makes it eye-popping. But it is not just Brown,” Smiley said.
Morales thinks the city has not explored all its options, citing industrial, waterfront properties on the city’s south side. “They can certainly afford to pay more in their taxes,” Morales said, an alternative to what he described as the overly broad taxation in Smiley’s strategy, in which “owner-occupied, multifamily homes…are going to feel the brunt of this increase.”
Meanwhile, the budgeting process chugs along on the city side. In an email Thursday, Marc Boyd, a City Council spokesperson, said individual councilors have been holding community meetings over the past month with residents in their respective wards to hear concerns about “revaluations, property taxes, the levy overall, and the budget process broadly.”
“Now that the mayor has proposed his budget, the Finance Committee will review, vet, and, if necessary, amend the mayor’s proposal as part of the normal budget process which, as usual, will include public hearings, the first of which is scheduled for May 6th,” Boyd said.
Boyd added that on Saturday, May 3, several Spanish-speaking councilors will be hosting a Latino Town Hall to discuss the same issues with Spanish-speaking residents. English translation will be available, and the event runs from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Providence Career and Technical Academy on Fricker Street.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
