Little Compton has a $3 billion tax base and a lean budget, giving homeowners some of the lowest property taxes around. However, over six years reserve withdrawals have hollowed out our fiscal strength.

A choice lies before us. Realign our tax levy to reflect the true cost of town services, or slash services, defer obligations, compound long-term costs. Even worse, if the state does not approve exceeding the levy cap, residents will have no voice, and an additional $1 million will have to be cut. It’s a pickle. Fortunately, with our large tax base and lean budget, the proposed one-time levy increase is less than $250 for the average property owner. Residents asked the right questions at the public hearing, they are owed answers.

What went wrong? Interconnected but separate issues:

• A $600K typo: A technical error in the administrator’s budget understated expenditures by $600,000. A routine 3.5 percent increase was in fact 8 percent. When the mistake was noticed, the budget committee had to strip out $585,000 in last-minute cuts.

• Rising expenses: Increases in salaries, pension and health benefits are among the biggest drivers of our higher costs. All essential.

• Drawing down reserves. Over four of the past six years, the town drained our “savings account,” which kept property taxes lower than they should have been. In FY 23 and FY 24 alone, we withdrew over $1.4 million, the levy didn’t change, creating a textbook structural deficit. A predictable 3.5 percent increase, we have left more than $2.7 million for needed capital projects and we would not be asking for a sudden 11% increase. The town took out a $2 million bond during this time, incurring long term debt. 

• The audit or lack thereof is serious but separate issue. The town’s finance department needs an overhaul. Procedural breakdowns are symptoms of weak financial controls, they are not the cause of our current budget shortfall, the use of the General Fund is.

I have spent the past six weeks rebuilding the budgets that the town has passed over the past six years to understand how we got to this year’s problems. Sal Marinosci is spot on:  Fix it for good! We need to modernize our processes, proper staffing so small errors can’t balloon into large problems. We must practice predictable tax levies by adopting sound budget practices avoiding emergency hikes. We should prohibit General Fund withdrawals for non-emergency operating expenses. We must require better reporting. How many people reading this letter knew that two people in town got together after the budget was finalized and decided how much to draw from the General Fund to offset taxes? In my two years of service on the budget committee, we did not take a single vote or discuss using the General Fund for operating expenses. We have never required voter approval to tap the reserve funds.

We must restore transparency and ensure Little Compton remains in our historic enviable position for taxpayers.

Andrew L. Rhyne, Ph.D.

Rhyne is a member of the Little Compton Budget Committee.