I’ve got a short post, with an accompanying map, on Tiverton Fact Check to give a quick explanation of the backwards way in which Rhode Island cities and towns develop their tax rates and how Tiverton’s compare with the cities and towns around it.

On the first count, the thing that many folks don’t realize is that the tax rate tends to be the last thing calculated.  It’s just the rate that the government has to apply to the properties in town in order to collect the amount of money officials say they need.  In other words, it starts with them, the government, not you, the people.

If towns focused more on the rates, then the government would have more incentive to make residents’ properties worth more, one way or another.

On the second count, the picture isn’t pretty.  At $19.30 per $1,000, Tiverton’s tax rate is significantly higher than that of any city or town around it, in Rhode Island or in Massachusetts.  The one exception is Warren, where the property values are lower.

Compared with Westport, right next door across the state line, the tax rate is less than half of Tiverton’s.  A Tiverton family with a $250,000 house will pay $4,825 in property taxes, this year, while a family with a house of the same value (which would likely be comparable in size) in Westport would pay only $1,983.

That’s almost an extra $3,000 that the Massachusetts family can invest, save, or spend… perhaps doing something that increases the value of the property.