At first look, it mightn’t concern Rhode Islanders from elsewhere that the Tiverton Town Council just spent a half-million dollars buying a waterfront gas station that will now not only pay no taxes, but will be part of a renovation project costing taxpayers an estimated “$2.3 million [for] renovation over the next few years.”  But look again:

On the funding side, [Town Solicitor Andrew Teitz] said, $200,000 would be coming from RIDOT,  and $208,000 from RIDEM.

Yes, that’s the same Department of Transportation whose director was recently making news whining about a lack of resources.  Let me refresh your memory:

Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Michael Lewis has a message for those traversing the state’s shoddy and weatherworn roads: Get used to it.

Crumbling roads and bridges across the state, Lewis told The Breeze, aren’t likely to get fixed anytime soon because the department’s funding sources are drying up …

Here, once again, we see the pattern of officials’ taking your money at the state level (where they’ve got such a lock on the electoral system that even extreme displeasure can’t unseat them) and giving it to local governments so they can commit local taxpayers to projects without anybody’s ever getting a vote.  In the recent national discussion over Russia and the Ukraine, I heard one analyst note that, while the West was wringing its hands, Vladamir Putin was changing facts on the ground.

That’s the strategy, here.  It’s not difficult to slip through purchases and programs when people don’t think they’re paying.  Once they own it, though, it’s their responsibility to pay for renovation and maintenance.  Welcome to the facts on the ground.

Even worse, this entire deal appears to have happened in closed executive session.  Many of us were waiting for the public debate of how the Town Council could possibly have the authority to make such a purchase. Oh, well.

I don’t know what to call this outrage, but it’s not democracy.

I also don’t know how many people actually stand to benefit from this.  I’d wager mere hundreds of Tiverton’s 15,000 residents even pass by this spot on a regular basis, let alone having an interest in stopping by to rent kayaks, or whatever.  And now you, no matter where you live in the state, have helped to pay for the feel-good shopping spree of my town’s little dictators.

Addendum:

Wait a minute.  It looks like town taxpayers might not be on the hook for the renovation costs.  According to the Fall River Herald:

The purchase is part of a larger project underway at the site. The town has plans to rebuild the Stone Bridge pier as a pedestrian walkway, part of a $2.6 million project funded by the state DOT.

You folks driving over war-zone roads in the urban areas will be paying for another nice, sparsely used spot for those Rhode Islanders and visitors who are able to afford to wander idly by the river.

Addendum 2:

According to the town’s charter, the town government doesn’t need voter approval of “major or special appropriations” if they’re under $500,000.  In this case, Solicitor Andrew Teitz says the total cost is $456,000.  For another $44,001, the people would have had a say.  So, to follow the ball:

• A family trust asked the (now-disgraced) former town administrator if the town wanted to buy the property, which is valued at $544,400.
• Without ever giving voters an opportunity for input, or even to observe the discussion of their elected representatives, the town council decided to buy it.
• Two state agencies kicked in purchase money, giving the local politicians cover.
• The terms of the purchase weren’t announced until after it was a done deal, even when ongoing negotiations were completed.
• It just so happened that the sellers were willing to go $144,400 below their assessed value, leaving room for the town to include closing costs and a $40,000 gas-tank removal without crossing the line that would require a vote.

Now, one of the relatively few properties in town that generates more than $10,000 in property taxes each year — $10,545 for just over a quarter acre of land, in 2013 — will become an ongoing source of costs, not revenue.

Addendum 3:

A few more bounces of the ball.

According to the Sakonnet Times, Cutillo Family Realty bought the property last summer, as the only bidder in a foreclosure auction, and immediately sought to sell it to the town.  The report appears to be mistaken, inasmuch as the property card puts the sale in May 2012.

What’s interesting, though, is that the same family trust had sold the property for $600,000 in 2009 to Stonebridge Realty.  That business is owned by George Alzaibak, who ran for a seat in the Rhode Island House as a Democrat in 2010.  Alzaibak had previously leased the property, a decade before, under Cutillo’s prior ownership.

Addendum 4:

Still more, here.