Letter: Town should freeze taxes for older residents

Posted 10/18/17

To the editor:

Barrington is now the richest town in Rhode Island but where is its fiscal responsibility.  

We all know that what goes up will go down, particularly if we are not …

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Letter: Town should freeze taxes for older residents

Posted

To the editor:

Barrington is now the richest town in Rhode Island but where is its fiscal responsibility.  

We all know that what goes up will go down, particularly if we are not responsible. And actually we would probably be better off if we were not so rich. When wealth goes up it usually takes a fall. Barrington should work on its addiction to spending and become more thoughtful as to when, where and how much. We have all felt the damage of recessions. And with our current national government it could be a very real upcoming possibility.

Back to the topic I had in mind — if I have all my facts right from the latest population statistics, Barrington has a total population of 16,310 residents and out of those are approximately 2,446 senior citizens aged 65 and older, about 15 percent of the total population. 

Senior citizens are a small percentage of our population who do not ask for near as much as the rest of the population, for example families with children in schools. And what about the residents of low income housing — are they renting or are some properties owned? If they are owned, are taxes paid on that property? If they are rented properties, do taxes go up when the rent goes up as taxes go up? Look at the “snowbird” seniors who do not use many town services while they are away? That saves the town some money, I would think.

It seems that Barrington has a discrimination problem against people of a certain age particularly when it comes to taxes and asking for full copies of personal information in order to receive some tax relief. That is intrusive and insulting and is not asked for from the general population nor should it be.  

The town appointed government seems to not trust approximately 15 percent of the population. How about the rest of the population, are they trustworthy? 

So town officials, why not solve the whole problem and not go against the privacy of personal information (some of which you already have) among other things, by just freezing the taxes on the older population who have no children, who have paid their taxes to support their town and who are now on a fixed income.

Less paperwork!

Barbara Flanders

Barrington

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