After both Republican and Democrat Richmond Town council members, in separate interviews, were provided the opportunity to air their views on the The Current’s popular video podcast, In The Dugout with Mike Stenhouse … now one  local pro-taxpayer group has mailed a letter to unaffiliated voters in the town about another new “community” group that has recently been formed, warning about their alleged non-transparent and true agenda.

The letter below was sent from Richmond resident, Louise Dinsmore, President of The Forgotten Taxpayers advocacy group.

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November 13, 2023

Dear Richmond Friend and Taxpayer,

This Halloween season, you may have been spooked by the mailer by a new group in Richmond calling themselves the Richmond “Community” Alliance.  Their intentions are admirable in describing themselves as non-partisan promising to “working together to foster a neighborly spirit and promote civility in our community.”  This is a worthy and positive goal if they actually were non-partisan and practiced what they preached.  Richmond residents and taxpayers…

DON’T BE FOOLED!

To be completely transparent, I am the co-founder of the Chariho Forgotten Taxpayers – a political action committee whose mission is to lead grassroots efforts to champion and promote fiscal responsibility, keeping YOU, THE TAXPAYERS, at the forefront of all decisions relative to town and school spending.  Our purpose is to give THE TAXPAYER A VOICE, as well as information and another point of view on local issues that directly impact your pocketbooks, so you can make prudent decisions.

Three of the Alliance’s Board members ran for Richmond Town Council in 2022 and lost miserably.  Their campaign messages failed to resonate with voters, and in my opinion, they misrepresented themselves as “independents” who financially supported Democrat candidates and attended Democrat fundraisers.  They weren’t transparent about who they were, nor were they transparent about their values.  And now they are using a “community alliance” as a ruse to garner support and name recognition for their 2024 campaigns.  Brilliant, right?  Use the word “community” in marketing and social media, regularly call out your political opponents in newsletters and social media posts, all under the guise of “I’m pro-community because I believe this, and you are anti-community because you don’t fall in line” and “if we repeat our slogans often enough, maybe, just maybe, this time our message will resonate with voters.”

The “Chair” of the Alliance, attorney Mark Reynolds, (one of the three Alliance Board members who ran for Town Council and lost in 2022) is now actively raising money for a 2024 Town Council run as evidenced by his latest campaign finance report filing.  Attorney Reynolds rarely misses the opportunity to chastise Town Councilor Mike Colasante during Council meetings, on social media or in Alliance newsletters.  Maybe Colasante was successful in 2022 because he was the only Town Council candidate bold enough to say “I will lower your taxes like I did before.”  Colasante’s message resonated with voters and he won because he told the taxpayers he would serve as their voice.  Campaign messages from Reynolds clearly did not resonate.  I will hand it to Reynolds and company though, this tactic of using a “Community Alliance” is politically astute. They aren’t fooling me and you shouldn’t be fooled either.  They are partisan and will support future Democrat candidates posing as independents who blindly support the status quo, “pass school and town budgets without any regard for the taxpayers’ ability to pay” philosophy.

Another Alliance Board member, Jeff Noble, currently spends his time as a keyboard warrior on social media taunting and bullying anyone that doesn’t share his “value” of a “blank check” for the Chariho schools.  One community member even called Noble’s behavior “creepy” for relentlessly taunting me, his actual neighbor, on social media because, heaven forbid, I didn’t subscribe to his “cost is of no concern” budget mentality for the Chariho schools.  Mr. Noble just doesn’t reflect on, consider, or respect any opinion that is different from his.  He lacks empathy for those taxpayers who are afraid that Richmond is becoming unaffordable for them.  That’s a problem if you are a Board member of the “Community” Alliance, don’t you think?

While in theory this Alliance is a positive step in the right direction – it is also a group that is masking their real intent of bolstering their upcoming campaigns.  They promote themselves as the “poster children” for “community” and “civility”, when in reality, what I have witnessed is the opposite behavior from a few of their Board members.  Just be honest with the taxpayers of your true purpose for Pete’s sake.

Make no mistake, if you are a local resident who fails to fall in line with the Richmond Community Alliance’s mantra of unlimited spending for the Chariho School Department, or questions any spending by the Town of Richmond, then you are derided and chastised by some of their founding members and some Town Council members as “anti-community”.  Unfortunately, what I have observed on social media is that if a taxpayer, like me, questions, or dare I say, opposes the school budget or local government spending, taxpayers and neighbors are called “irresponsible and reckless” – which makes us “anti-community” by their standards.  This is total nonsense.  I’m not anti-community nor am I anti-school.  I just want to be able to afford my house in 5 years!

Our system of “checks and balances” in our government is, after all, what the Framers of our Constitution advocated for.  I support checks and balances for our local elected officials, and I support transparency in government.

The Chariho Forgotten Taxpayers will always tell you exactly what we stand for.  We advocate for fiscal responsibility and regularly call on elected officials, school and town administration to be accountable for their decisions relative to public spending.  We don’t just blindly “trust the experts.”  We ask thoughtful questions of those in charge – elected representatives and members of the school and town administration.  You’ll often see me at Town Council and School Committee meetings asking questions.  And those thoughtful questions should be welcomed and not dismissed or disrespected for presenting another point of view.

We also advocate for school curriculum that is traditional – focused on high achievement in reading, writing and math.  After all, our “all-in” school budget is $65 million and shouldn’t we be doing better than 33% “meeting or exceeding” expectations in state testing for our 8^th graders in math?  If we can’t question that and hold people accountable then we are in real trouble.  (Look for yourself – https://www3.ride.ri.gov/ADP).We don’t believe in using the classroom as a social experiment.  Do you agree with teaching 11-year-old kids “pleasure-based” sexual education?  I don’t!  This is what’s coming down the pipeline by statewide Democrat legislators.  (https://wpde.com/news/nation-world/pleasure-based-sexual-relations-lawmakers-push-new-sex-ed-instruction-in-rhode-island).  And we don’t believe any school should hide anything from parents about their children.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t parent my child with the RI Department of Education or the RI progressive/Democrat legislators.  The public schools should not be teaching 11-year-olds about pleasuring themselves.  Here’s an idea, how about spending more time on improving the 8^th grade math scores for starters?

Richmond friends, we can’t just blindly “trust the experts” or trust the opinions of local “community” groups.  It’s time for you to get informed and engaged.

Here’s the real deal, in the spirit of brutal honesty, what I have seen over the last few years locally is alarming and cause for great concern.  I’ve seen most of our elected representatives on the Chariho School Committee and Richmond Town Council pass budgets and contracts that are completely unsustainable to you and me.  They propose budgets without ANY REGARD for our ability to pay.  And we’ve allowed this to take place because, until recently, we weren’t organized. We weren’t informed, we weren’t asking questions, we weren’t attending Chariho School Committee and Richmond Town Council meetings.  Quite frankly, we aren’t holding our elected officials accountable for their spending decisions – decisions that are passed on to you and me in the form of higher taxes year after year! With your help, that will change!

Bottom line is…Richmond is becoming completely unaffordable… I’m worried and you should be too….

Together with Clay Johnson, we formed the Forgotten Taxpayers PAC because we want YOU to be able to afford your houses in the next five years.  We are very concerned for the elderly, young families and everyone in between, who have approached us in tears about the prospect of losing their homes because they simply cannot afford to make ends meet.  We organized and had recent success in defeating the school budget vote twice in 2022 and the Richmond town budget vote in 2023, not because we don’t value a great education or value our local employees, but because we felt we had to use our voices and our votes to take a stand and oppose spending increase after spending increase.  That increased spending brings tax increase after tax increase.  Our elected officials on the School Committee and the Town Council aren’t listening to the fact that we are at our budget breaking points!  But we’re listening……we hear you…..we see you……and we have your back.

Here are a few FACTS that you should know:

• Eighty cents (.80 cents) of every dollar of your property taxes support the Chariho school budget. While we believe in investing in our schools, spending has to be fiscally responsible, and teacher contracts have to be fair, sustainable and performance-based.  In the future, spending has to be viewed through the lens of – “what can the taxpayer afford?”
• Approximately eighty percent (80%) of the school budget are fixed costs (salaries & benefits). The Chariho School Committee recently passed another 3-year teacher contract despite our request for a 1-year contract, to give newly-elected School Committee members the time to take a deeper dive into trends of declining enrollment, how the declining enrollment impacts the budget in terms of staffing needs, and how declining enrollment impacts facilities’ needs.  We appreciate our teachers and they are a valuable asset.  However, we have to view these contracts not only through a lens of “All Students – All the Time” but also “What is Fair and Affordable to the Taxpayers?” – because after all, WE PAY THE BILLS.
• In the last 12 fiscal years, Richmond town spending has increased by 82%! Think about that!  And we’ve allowed it to happen without asking a lot of questions.  When two members of the current Richmond Town Council, Mike Colasante and Helen Sheehan, asked questions about town spending this year, they were (and continue to be) chastised and mocked by Councilors Mark Trimmer, Rich Nassaney and Samantha Wilcox as well as some Board members of the Richmond Community Alliance.  Trimmer wouldn’t even allow discussion on the spending decision of a back-up generator, at a cost of $98,000, (that’s a story for the next letter) at the Nov. 7^th Town Council meeting.  Is this neighborly or civil?  I think not.  Silencing your political opponents is neither responsible or neighborly.