Local Taxes Set Us Back to the Future

I heard somebody say, recently that Tiverton is trying to run its town on a 1988 budget, so naturally I figured I’d take a look at the numbers:

It would be more true to say that in 2016 we paid 2044 taxes, because that’s when the average inflation rate of the last three decades would have brought the 1990 levy up to $37.8 million.  If remembering 1988 makes you feel old, how young does imagining 2044 make you feel? …

One detail makes the chart much more shocking: We’re being asked to pay our 2044-level taxes with 1990 income, or pretty close.  From 1990 to 2015, median household income in Tiverton increased about 2.8% per year, versus about 2.4% annual inflation, even factoring in population growth.  If Tiverton households’ income had grown as much as their town taxes, the median would have gone from $36,170 in 1990 to $124,295 in 2015.  The actual number was $71,901.

My general sense, statewide, is that Tiverton’s taxes are on the extreme end, but that most cities and towns have had a similar story, with taxes increasing well beyond inflation while income just barely kept pace with the cost of living.

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