From the Annual Town Meeting of May 15, 2007



Article 26.
To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Three Hundred Seventy-One Thousand, Four Hundred Eighty Dollars ($371,480.00) for payment of the long-term debt for the expansion and renovation of the Narragansett Regional High School/Narragansett Middle School in accordance with a debt exclusion voted on January 22, 1996, or to take any other action relative thereto.
Submitted by the Narragansett Regional School District Committee

On a motion duly made and seconded the Town voted to raise and appropriate the sum of Three Hundred Seventy-One Thousand, Four Hundred Eighty Dollars ($371,480.00) for payment of the long-term debt for the expansion and renovation of the Narragansett Regional High School/Narragansett Middle School in accordance with a debt exclusion voted on January 22, 1996. 

Passed Unanimously/May 16th @ 8:46



A debt exclusion (Ch. 59 Sec. 21C(j)) raises additional tax revenue to pay debt service costs to finance a capital project, or sometimes to fund a major capital purchase (i.e., a fire engine). The excluded amount, or additional tax, is not specified in the referendum language, but need not equal the anticipated annual debt service obligation in its entirety. A limit on the amount to be raised is initially set in the bond authorization which actually funds the capital project or purchase. It requires a two-thirds vote of town meeting, a town council or city council. The additional property taxes are not permanent, but are removed from the levy when the term of the bond ends.



The document passed out at Town meeting for the new elementary school has it this way;

Costs to Templeton -      $24,634,287.00

cost per year at 3.5% -    $  1,406,865.00

less NRHS debt end -      $    438,073.00

Net new debt -                  $    968,792.00

annual residential tax $1.74 per thousand

(based on 28 year term at 3.5% interest rate)

box next to it states: based on equal yearly payment amount over 28 years at 3.5% interest. The exact bond amount, interest rate and terms will be determined when the TOWN borrows the money.

Seems the "sale" was the tax rate to come up with the "new" debt amount of $968,792.00, rather than what the tax rate will actually be to cover the entire bond amount.

Seems like there are some used car salesmen serving as selectmen now. One has to wonder how hard would it be to obtain the needed signatures to put a citizens petition before the next Town Meeting, to ask voters if they wish to amend, change or rescind the vote of November 9, 2015.

 posted by Jeff Bennett