Eugene Quinn for East Greenwich Schools

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At Norman's Restaurant

Why I serve:

  • East Greenwich has long enjoyed a reputation for good government and excellent schools. I consider it a privilege to have a role in continuing that tradition.
  • As a 48-year resident, I have paid several hundred thousand dollars in property taxes. I'm proud of what my taxes helped build, and I want to see that investment preserved.
  • I support an evidence-based, data-driven approach to policy making across local government that emphasizes careful analysis and a long term perspective.

Analysis and opinions are my own and do not reflect positions of the East Greenwich School Committee in any way

Stories

   School Bond History - Updated for 2024 Revaluation

Taxgraph

School Bond Amounts and Percentage of Assessed Property Value1

 SchoolYearBond AmountTotal Assessed ValuePercentageEquivalent Bond with Current Assessed Value
 Eldredge1926$250,000$4,721,2065.3%$143,000,000
 Cole I1956$735,000$14,106,0805.2%$140,000,000
 Hanaford1958$240,000$18,180,1701.3%$35,000,000
 EGHS1964$3,000,000$27,447,30010.9%$294,000,000
 Frenchtown1964$800,000$27,447,3002.9%$79,000,000
 Meadowbrook1968$1,000,000$62,322,0401.6%$43,000,000
 Cole II2010$52,000,000$2,612,044,6232.0%$54,000,000
 Proposed2023$150,000,000$2,684,298,2275.6%$109,000,000
 Proposed at current valuations2024$150,000,000$3,692,000,0004.1%$150,000,000
1 Current valuations estimated from Town Manager's proposed 2025 budget property tax rates and levies.

   School Bond Information

http://www.egbondreferendum.com/

School Bond Referendum Tuesday, November 7th

   School Bond History

Taxgraph

School Bond Amounts and Percentage of Assessed Property Value

 SchoolYearBond AmountTotal Assessed ValuePercentageEquivalent Bond with Current Assessed Value
 Eldredge1926$250,000$4,721,2065.3%$143,000,000
 Cole I1956$735,000$14,106,0805.2%$140,000,000
 Hanaford1958$240,000$18,180,1701.3%$35,000,000
 EGHS1964$3,000,000$27,447,30010.9%$294,000,000
 Frenchtown1964$800,000$27,447,3002.9%$79,000,000
 Meadowbrook1968$1,000,000$62,322,0401.6%$43,000,000
 Cole II2010$52,000,000$2,612,044,6232.0%$54,000,000
 Proposed2023$150,000,000$2,684,298,2275.6%$150,000,000

Single Family Home Tax Histories 1992-2023

Taxgraph

Growth in assessed value generally exceeds taxes paid.

Based on tax records for 3,300 single family homes that were listed as such on both the 1992 and 2023 tax rolls:
  • In round numbers, $860 million in taxes was paid, and total property value increased by $1 billion.
  • The median of the 3,300 growth factors for the assessed value was 3.4, meaning the 2023 valuation was 3.4 times the 1992 valuation.
  • Tax and valuation histories for single family homes are posted here.
  • It is evident from the graphs that the debt service from the Cole construction did not produce a spike in tax bills.
  • It is also evident that in general revaluations do not produce spikes in tax bills.

   Demographics Study and Enrollment Forecast

Mckibben forecast

Cropper/McKibben Enrollment Forecast

Based on the 2021 Cropper/McKibben Demographics Analysis
  • The McKibben forecast used a much more sophisticated demographics model (the Cohort Component Method) than previous projections.
  • The model considers not only enrollment history, but census data, birth rates, mortality, in-migration, and out-migration.
  • Other projections only considered enrollment history and births, and had very unstable long-term forecasts that were not always consistent with historical trends.
  • McKibben's long-term forecasts are entirely consistent with historical trends.

   Planning for Future Growth

Mckibben forecast

The 2019 Milone and MacBroom Demographics Analysis

State CodeDot CountTotal Parcels
01 Single Family1,3003,915
02 2-5 Family106159
04 Combo12160
23 Res Condo64323
All Other29604
Total1,5115,161

East Greenwich had the ninth highest FY2022 residential property tax rate. Why?

taxes

There are three primary reasons:

  • In terms of assessed property value per resident, East Greenwich is not particularly wealthy, ranking 11th. Other towns have a considerably larger tax base per capita.
  • State education aid varies greatly by town. If every town had to raise their FY2022 state education aid through residential property taxes, East Greenwich's adjusted tax rate would rank 19th
  • With 0.20 public school students per capita compared to the state average of 0.12, East Greenwich has more students enrolled in public schools per capita than any other community except Barrington.

100 Years of East Greenwich Tax History

taxes
  • The Recapitulation Page is a legal document submitted by the Tax Assessor every year.
  • It provides reliable documentation on tax rates, total assessed value, and total tax levy in a standardized format.
  • These records for East Greenwich are available beginning just after the Civil War
  • Contrary to the narrative of unsustainable tax growth that we have seen, the tax rate is about the same it was a century ago, and there is no significant trend up or down.
  • That said, the advent of the 4% levy cap guarantees that the tax rate will fall over time, although this will only be evident at the end of revaluation cycles.
  • The sawtooth pattern you see is purely an artifact of the periodic revaluation cycles that began in 1952. Rates generally increase every year of the cycle (with two exceptions, 1958 and 2017) then fall back to something close to the long-term average when a revaluation is done. These increases have nothing to do with expenses.