Following a full decade during which Tiverton didn’t see a tax levy increase smaller than 3 percent, the financial town referendum (FTR) has brought much-needed relief. For the past four years, no tax increase has been bigger than 0.9 percent.

This year, my budget petition gives you the opportunity to reduce the tax levy by 2.9 percent. The reality of a reduction is unusual, so let me repeat that this year the larger percentage on the ballot — 2.9 percent — actually provides more tax savings.

If Budget #2 wins (the -2.9 percent budget), the tax rate will drop from $19.05 this year to an estimated $15.96 next year. Those of us who have seen big increases in our property 

values can still control our taxes at the FTR on May 19.

The people who want you to vote for the town’s more-expensive budget want it both ways. They want you to believe that the tax savings are too small to matter to you but that they’re also so big that the town might face a crisis. They’ve said this every year, and the gradual approach to tax reduction has worked out every time.

The biggest factor allowing the reduction this year is new gambling revenue from the Twin River casino currently being built in town. The Tiverton Taxpayers Association has estimated that casino revenue could, in fact, allow a 10 percent reduction in taxes when it’s done. Much of that money won’t be available until next year, though, and the Tiverton Town Council looks like it’s doing everything it can to make sure they get to decide how it’s spent, not you.

We have to have a little bit of a “get it while you can” attitude this year, because we can’t know how much the town council and the town solicitor will manipulate the ongoing town charter review. The council’s proposals have included getting rid of the FTR entirely, which would mean we’re no longer talking about the size of your reduction in taxes, but the size of your increase.

Even with that in mind, the -2.9 percent budget doesn’t take extreme risks with the town’s ability to function. The amount of casino gambling revenue used in my petition is exactly what the state Division of Lottery suggested the town should use. With the buzz in the area about the casino, that seems conservative even as a starting point.

As a cushion, we have every reason to expect that the town will end this fiscal year with additional money in its reserves from school capital reimbursements and various other permits and fees.

If something goes really, really wrong, the charter allows the council and school committee to dip into millions of dollars in reserves based on a budget emergency. Then the reserves can easily be replenished with gambling revenue the next year — at least the $3 million minimum written into state law.

Over the past four years, we’ve had small increases between 0 percent and 0.9%. Despite ridiculous warnings about what would happen if you voted for those budgets, they won at the FTRs, and the town has continued to make progress. That’s because those budgets were part of a realistic plan to make our taxes more reasonable over time.

The 2.9 percent reduction in taxes is this year’s step in that plan, and Tiverton voters should keep our progress going.

Justin Katz

Tiverton