Providence City Council Taxes the Working Class

The Providence City Council plans to increase property taxes, which will disproportionately harm the working class while letting big capitalists off the hook.

Single families will be hit with a 6% tax increase. Non-owner occupied properties with two to five units — where most poor and working-class residents of Providence live — will see an outrageous 13% increase.

According to an email from State Senator Sam Bell, the city was offered alternative funding from the state that would have eliminated the need for any new tax increases on working people: “In the Providence Senate delegation, we worked for months on crafting proposals. We watered them down to three: 1) higher taxes on home value above $1 million per unit, 2) forcing the colleges to pay more with the same powers we gave Smithfield, and 3) a higher tax rate on polluting industrial properties.”

Mayor Brett Smiley and Council President Rachel Miller rejected the offer. Rather than taxing industrial polluters in the Port of Providence, they plan to levy broad, regressive taxes on working-class residents.

It’s especially notable that the Providence City Council is majority progressive Democrats. Council President Miller even identifies as a democratic socialist. Electing left-wing Democrats has not solved the fundamental problem: both major political parties belong to the capitalist class, and capitalists determine government policy. The working class needs a movement and party of its own to fight back.

At 5:30 p.m. today (June 30th), the Finance Committee is holding a public hearing on the city budget in the City Council Chamber on the third floor of Providence City Hall. Show up and speak your mind!

Thumbnail image by Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=104517511