Letter: Barrington council's mega tax break for developers

Posted 10/16/18

To the editor:

The sticker shock of August property tax bills is still on the minds of Barrington residents. Everyone, that is, except one: Sweetbriar Limited Partners, the for-profit developer of …

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Letter: Barrington council's mega tax break for developers

Posted

To the editor:

The sticker shock of August property tax bills is still on the minds of Barrington residents. Everyone, that is, except one: Sweetbriar Limited Partners, the for-profit developer of the Sweetbriar affordable apartments.  Town officials reduced Sweetbriar’s taxes by over 60 percent below what affordable housing should actually be paying, and then, compounded the tax break by freezing all future tax increases against the rising costs of schools, fire, and police services.  

Are these tax breaks legal?  

In 2004, the town declared they were illegal in filed documents in the town land records. But starting in 2008, the town council realized they could get creative over the interpretation of tax law exemptions and simply informed the town assessor just how creative they wanted him to be. In doing the council's bidding, the assessor would have to violate the exemption guidelines established by the Rhode Island Association of Assessing Officers (RIAAO). The assumption was that nobody was looking. 

In 2018, town officials expanded the Sweetbriar tax policy to include all future affordable rental housing development. Again, the thought was that nobody was looking.

On Feb. 13, 2018, the town assessor sent a letter to RI Housing declaring that the dubious tax breaks granted to Sweetbriar would be available to every affordable rental housing project coming to Barrington. The assessor tried to hide the letter from residents by keeping it out of his March monthly report to the town council. When a records request was filed in May for these policy documents, the Feb. 13 letter was withheld. It took multiple attempts to finally pry the letter out of the assessor’s office.

The council leadership refused to address the matter further. But consider the impact of what happened to the residents of East Providence under similar circumstances. For years, residents were subsidizing the property taxes for the wealthy owner of the 250-unit Kent Farms development, Max Kargman. Because of the tax policy, Kargman only paid property taxes on an assessed value of approximately $38,000 per unit. In 2012, Kargman cashed in and sold the entire complex for approximately $79,000 per unit. The citizens of East Providence had no ability to claw back the years of subsidies out of the 2012 windfall.

The current owner of Kent Farms, Priderock Capital Partners, claim on their webpage to serve "high net worth investors". Obviously there’s big money in affordable housing given it's a primary part of Priderock’s “high net worth" investment portfolio.

Councilor Steve Primiano is the only council member who has opposed this tax break and advocated for a proper legal review. But the council majority is stacked in favor of burying this under the cover of a questionable legal opinion from the town solicitor.  

Residents should be suspicious.  

Look what happened to Nockum Hill after the solicitor's questionable legal opinion said it was okay to use the Spencer Trust to support town sponsored affordable housing there. Residents ultimately pay the price for these tactics.

Gary Morse

Barrington

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.