Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

how is this a news item now? This bill was introduced by Senate Majority Whip Dominick Ruggerio in late March. The Senate Committee on Housing and Municipal Government held a rather long meeting on this bill in May. Where was the projo then?

Cicilline would rather let somebody build high-end condos that nobody can afford to buy than let the universities that actually keep this city afloat use the land to bring jobs in.

Imagine- jobs ENTERING Providence instead of leaving.

And take prime real estate off the tax rolls of Providence?! How dare they even ask!

As long as they PAY state and local taxes for the property and pay the FAIR MARKET value go ahead and sell it to them. Other wise tell'm to take a hike!

I'm in the wrong business. I need to figure out how I can be given real estate for free by the city and pay a tax base of 0%. But remember, it's not the universities faults. It's the "legislators" who dump the bills in the middle of the night with no review. Any wonder why nobody has seen the proposal? Like, I dunno, the mayor of the city?

THIS is why people are leaving RI in droves. Do the students from the colleges stick around? By the looks of them filling Mommy and Daddy's Range Rovers the last few weekends and hitting the "iway", it doesn't look like it. Thanks for nothing.

For once, I agree with the Mayor. If you want to give the property to one of the edu's, fine. But its about time they started to pay their own way rather than feed off the public.

How sad it is to hear the likes of Brown bleat because their endowment took an $800 million hit last year (Projo, Jan 29) and is a mere $2 billion now.

Providence has not yet 'rezoned' area nor allowed public comment. The State has not yet released its Master Plan. RIDOT is pushing quick sales so that they can replenish accounts and get matching highway funds. Everyone needs to slow down and understand that once this land is sold it is no longer the peoples. It is prime downtown, harbor view, highway accessible land. The insiders will have to wait until the public speaks!

This ought to be a hoot to watch. Wonder how much Gilmartin is gonna get paid for this one.

It should be an OPEN and FAIR process. Oh I forgot, SILLY ME, this is corruption central aka RI

In this day and age when cities and towns rely on every penny of tax money, the only way I would sell this land to Brown or J&W is to make sure they pay full price AND pay taxes for the years to come. We are financially stretched to the limit and provide many services to our colleges and universities; they should reciprocate by paying taxes to the city.

This is a great idea. Remove more land from the tax roles.

I thought all of this land was to be used as parks for the community. Why should the universities and colleges use this land free of any taxes? They already have a lot of untaxed land and now they want more? No wonder RI is in such dire shape with the deficit they have. Also what will this do to the traffic downtown..people trying to get to different locations? There isn't enough parking as it is and now they want MORE congestion? Good thinking people. Why should we have opinions? The politicians will do whatever is in THEIR best interest not their constituents.

Allowing the schools to have a portion of the land will mean an increase in jobs. God forbid we attract businesses and jobs to the area!
Would you rather turn it all into parks that will be overcome by tent cities, graffiti, and gang violence? or high end condos no one can afford? What a way to entice people to spend money in Providence!

J&W wants the land to build dorms !!! I guess that throws water on the students arguments protesting Cicilli's fee - "... we students rent apartments, and the landlord pays taxes, so therefore we do pay property taxes..."

Under the J&W proposal, they'll force students into the dorms, via restrictions on their aid package, students stop renting from the average Joe landlord, who get's stuck with a tax bill he can't afford. Sooounds like a great economic business model !! Thanks Brown and J&W for all you've done for us!!!

It's not as simple as you would think. Both sides of the argument have valid points. Sell them the land in hopes it stimulates the economy by more than making up for the loss in property taxes, or just sell it to private investors who will use it for whatever but gain the sale of the land and the tax dollars. I say option A has more potential, it at worst will generate jobs. Taxing a university should not be an option. It would create and adversarial environment between the city and the schools. Good luck getting any cooperation either way going forward after that.

I see no distinct between non-profits and profits in the way they operate. They all have to be concerned with costs and control growth. In the case of the universities we always look at the negatives associated with them and ignore the vitality of the institutions bring to the area. At least these organizations are growing and expanding their operations. You can't say that for many others.

I would go ahead and sell them the land at a fair market value plus. The positives for this are they will build on the sites quickly and their expanding operations will provide jobs. No private companies with building plans to invest have yet to express interest in the land. However, there are many speculators who want the land, but in this case they want to hold the land and sell it later at a big profit. Since they would pay property taxes so, on that basis, I assume the posters here would favor that development. Not me because paying property taxes is only one part of the deal. Providing Jobs and, vitality, and the speed in building are frankly more important.

Here are just some questions to think about.

Am I the only one who travels through downtown and sees a lot of vacant office and store spaces?? It's nice and all to say you want to use this land for industry, but does industry even want to come here?

If you want to tax colleges, then you should tax the churches, too - how is the logic any different? Isn't this the laziest approach to solving a city's budget woes? And who created these woes? Blame the colleges and universities all you want, but wasn't it due to the rotten management of our esteemed leadership?

How is it that other cities with a considerable collegiate presence can manage without taxing their students, which ultimately SHOULD BE TREATED as valuable resources? Wouldn't it be nice if at least SOME of our area's graduates were able to achieve their successes locally, instead of internationally or in other cities across our country? And imagine, wouldn't it be nice if these educated graduates could replace our nitwit political leaders?

What would this city be like without it's colleges and universities - Brown, RISD, JWU, PC, RIC - most of which are internationally respected?

How blind can you get? Complaining because students are leaving for the summer/ - Every one of those students brings $30,000 to $50,000 a year into the city. There are over 15,000 of them just in those two schools - do the math! That is a half-billion dollars a year! Plus PC, RISD and our other fine schools. Providence would be a hell-hole of debt without them! You could never collect in property taxes what those students bring in to the local merchants, and all the thousands of good-paying jobs they create. Go downtown and see what a difference J&W has made on Weybosset street (where there were bombed out abandoned buildings a few years ago). Other cities envy us these wonderful institutions.
Pleas look beyond your nose for once!

Of course Cacieri would approve. If he waited until the land becomes available in 2 years the real estate market will be recovering and some businesses and waterfront developers that could provided jobs for Rhode Islanders would want this prime land. Then his country club/East Greenwich friends would have to bid more and maybe couldn't bring in more out of state academics and students to live and work tax free. All we have as a economic resource here in RI is the transportation and tourist value of the Bay. We have wasted the former Navy land in Newport and Quonset on boutique industries and luxury condo's. Now he wants to do the same in Providence. From colonial times to the present our harbors have allowed industries and wholesale business to bring in materials and ship out products. As rising fuel costs make cargo ships more viable and imports more expense, we must work to bring trade back to RI, not just more well off students to fill the bars.

Why would college students stick around? When you arrive in Rhode Island, you see a poorly run, corrupt state with tons of potential but no leadership and complacent citizens. Try and speak up.... Offer an idea. Get shot down every time. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, "You're not from here," over four years, my tuition would be paid for.

Brilliant young people, people with ideas, energy and skills, are driven away. I stuck around for a summer and met some really great people who grew up in RI and went to schools in and out of the state. Two years later, degrees in hand, they are all gone. No jobs. No affordable housing, high taxes and a perception that nothing will change- all because people in this state are unwilling to look all of 20 minutes away to see how things might be done differently.

The collective response of the brain trust running this place: add more fees for students and make life more difficult for the universities. Every time you think RI can't be more short-sighted, the powers that be prove you wrong.

I agree wholeheartedly with GetReal & USMC1971, we need to look past the immediate "Oh my god, we need taxes NOW!!! Tax everything!!" and realize the true value of granting use to this land to Brown and J&W exceeds the fleeting immedicacy of tax revenues.

These institutions if allowed to grow in this valuable downtown space can be the basis for a future infrastructure to GROW Providence. If the downtown is modeled after other cities. The benefits are not tangible NOW - but they lay the framework for future revenues. It is an amazing opportunity - in fact a once in a lifetime for when else do you have the ability to shape an integral portion of a major city's downtown area? There is room for both - commercial development and institutions, both relying on each other and feeding off each other.

Wouldn't it be nice if at least SOME of our area's graduates were able to achieve their successes locally, instead of internationally or in other cities across our country? And imagine, wouldn't it be nice if these educated graduates could replace our nitwit political leaders?

Pat Kennedy come to mind,yer he's a real winner.

The worst kept secret in RI is that Brown, J&W and Lifespan have been drooling at the prospect of scoffing up this land. Clearly, they are major stakeholders in Providence and are important to its fuiture. However, for far too many years, they also have enjoyed an unprecedented relationship (to their benefit) when it came to financially supporting city government. If they are willing to pay full market value for the land(state benefits )and full property taxes (city benefits), go for it. Unfortunately, based upon past expressions, they will be most reluctant to do so, if pay any taxes at all.

The current shrinking tax base in Providence is totally unsustainable. As someone whose family uses few city services (far less than the 15,000 students mentioned in an earlier message) and whose taxes continue to escalate, the colleges AND universities must ante up. Anything else is unacceptable.

The bill being proposed is a backdoor way in for JWU and Brown to obtain prime real estate. Should these great tax exempt institutions grab all the downtown land before capital developers have a chance to bid, it will be a loss. Econimic development will generate revenue for the city of Providence.

If the universities and the city hope to revitilize the jewelry distric, dorms on this limited land will not translate into the dynamic downtown area being suggested.

Brown University research labs do sound enticing and I hope they do form partnerships necessary to attact bio-tech companies. I think the this aspect of economic development will be equally dependant on Brown's business plan for such labs, incentives offered by the state, and a qualified workforce to support the Bio-tech market.

I want to see this development play out well so all parties, the state, city and universities get what they desire.

It is highly likely that anyone who thinks it is OK for non-profits to continue to not pay city property taxes is not a Providence resident paying the insane taxes in this city. I am selling my place because Providence charged me $4800!!! in motor vehicle excise tax this year. Let me repeat that - $4,800!!! (more than my residential property tax after homestead exemption) Yes, there are nice cars parked in my driveway. That does not stop this from being robbery. But where else is the city going to get the $$$? Certainly not from property taxes on a huge amount of space non-profits own. I love this city and am fine with the high mill rate because I have the luxury of walking to the restaurants and entertainment, but in the future I'll drive to them and pay another town reasonable mv excise taxes. Something needs to be done. Let the state pay the city the difference if they think it is such a great idea to continue to make Providence homeowners pay exorbitant rates for their property while the universities pay nothing. Remember, much of the money spent by students goes into state sales tax. Something has to change. Of course, using common sense rather than favoritism would be asking alot of RI politicians.

When either of the land grabbing pigs get their hands on the property. I sincerly hope the city makes them pay the full value of the property and the buildings that get put there.
No wonder taxpayers are getting jammed, every alumnus of either university imposes their influence on the mayor and manages to steal away valuable tax money the city and state need to survive.