Welcome to the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee Website

Our mission is to give you an alternative point of view on political events in Charlestown, without the name-calling and finger-pointing that has tainted political debate both here in Charlestown and across the country.

We will present you with facts, information sources and well-researched and reasoned points of view. We hope you will sign up for our e-mail alerts and news, as well as share your own comments and point of view with us.

News and Information

Our committee wants to debate issues, not personnel

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), in a recent email and posting on its website, states, "The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee finds no problem with the Town Administrator's behavior. CCA disagrees. Honesty matters."

We have to ask, where is the CCA's honesty? The fact is that the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee (CDTC) has not taken a formal position on the town administrator's actions, which are a personnel matter that should not be politicized as the CCA is doing. Several of our members have indeed spoken and written eloquently as individual citizens in support of Mr. DiLibero and our hard-working town staff, as is their right. They have challenged the unfair and unfounded attacks coming from the CCA members of the Council, Tom Gentz and Dan Slattery.

As events have unfolded, the CCA's attacks against town staff, and against the CDTC, have been shown to be deceptive and distorted to suit the CCA's interests, particularly their outlandish claims that the town must yield control of Ninigret Park to the federal government.

The CDTC looks forward to debating the CCA over the issues that matter to Charlestown voters, such as fair taxes, sensible land use and environmental protection, our local economy, the educational, housing and recreational needs of our children and what constitutes good government.

We will debate them over the issues of adherence to the town charter and the CCA's practice of bypassing or abusing the many civic-minded volunteers who serve on town commissions, when it suits the CCA agenda. We will do so as a town committee as well as in our own names. We will encourage and support individual townspeople to bring their own points of view to the debate. We will not speak anonymously or speak on issues without a thorough search for and understanding of the facts relating to those issues.

If "honesty matters" to the CCA, the CDTC calls on it to actually practice it, rather than use it as a slogan to attack others.

Catherine O'Reilly Collette, Charlestown

The writer is chair of the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee.

Open letter to the Charlestown Town Council

January 3, 2012 - On December 12, 2011, the Town Council majority addressed the interests of non-resident and high-value property owners when it rejected the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee’s proposal for a $1000 Homestead Tax Credit.

Amid the long and bitter denunciation of our proposal was the occasional glimmer of concern for the more than 2000Charlestownhouseholds who live in more modest homes. These residents struggle to make ends meet in this tough economy where jobs are scarce, benefits are being cut, food and energy prices are rising while home values are falling and credit is in short supply.

We designed our proposal, patterned after the other tax credits in our town, for theseCharlestownfamilies. You turned that proposal down. We understand that. It’s politics.

But now we are all left with this question: what, if anything, will this Town Council do to provide struggling middle and lower-income homeowners with tax relief?

Councilors Avedisian and Frank both suggested that there should be more study done of the issues of tax justice inCharlestown.

The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee asks you to act on their recommendation and assemble a body of citizens to review the economic concerns ofCharlestownresidents with an eye toward specific tax remedies.

We urge that this body be representative of the people who actually live and vote inCharlestown, rather than the non-residents who dominated the December 12 proceedings. Of course, as the initiators of this process, we respectfully request a meaningful presence on that body.

Though we were disappointed with the outcome of the December 12 meeting, we believe the Town Council owesCharlestown’s working families at least as much concern and attention as you gave to the non-residents who convinced you to kill our Homestead Tax Credit proposal.

Sincerely,

Catherine O’Reilly Collette, Chair

CDTC provides calculator to see the impact of proposed Homestead Tax Credit

The proposed Homestead Tax Credit, for homeowners who claim Charlestown as their primary residence, was introduced on November 14 and is explained in the article below.

We now provide a calculator so homeowners can see the impact on their taxes from the proposed tax credit.

First look up your property valuation on your tax bill or on Vision Appraisal.

Then open our Tax Calculator. It will look something like this:

Charlestown Democrats propose tax cut for middle-income full-time residents

The CDTC proposal is called a "homestead exemption," a common tax policy tool used in many states and other Rhode Island cities and towns to balance the effect non-residents have on the cost of services paid for by permanent residents.

Charlestown Democrats want the town to provide full-time residents with a tax credit of up to $1000 a year on their property taxes, beginning with the tax year that starts July 1, 2012. Their proposal was presented at the November 14 Town Council meeting by CDTC Secretary Tom Ferrio.

Ferrio noted Charlestown's full-time population of 7,827 people is taxed to support an infrastructure that serves summer visitors who triple the town's population during June, July and August. Approximately 40% of Charlestown residences are owned by non-residents and that number climbs to 80% for properties valued at one million dollars or more.

Ferrio noted that out-of-state property owners also avoid paying state income taxes that provide essential support for infrastructure and services in Charlestown.

The presentation and the accompanying commentary can be viewed in the documents below.

A person choosing not to identify himself has claimed that the website Progressive Charlestown is a voice for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee.  While the Progressive Charlestown authors include several members of the Committee, the website and the articles are their individual products and reflect their individual opinions and style.

The content of Progressive Charlestown is not reviewed or approved by the Committee in any way unless explicitly stated in an article (for example, a Committee press release published there).

The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee (CDTC) urges termination of the Whalerock commercial wind energy project and asks for a new focus on developing a sensible energy policy for Charlestown.

The press release below contains the details of the CDTC statement.

Rhode Island Democratic Committee Web Site

Democratic National Committee Web Site