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Warwick resident Rob Cote is on a mission to rally Warwick taxpayers to protest the City Council’s elimination of the $5,500 auto exemption. Removal of the exemption boosts the city taxes of all vehicles valued at $6,000 or more by $190.30.
Cote spent Monday evening addressing 300 letters containing information about the tax and urging people to attend the Aug. 15 council meeting in a show of protest.
“My car tax protest is in full force,” said Cote via an e-mail exchange. “I have mailed letters to the immediate neighbors of the six council members who voted for this tax. They will not be happy with the council when they get the letters. The additional taxation is due to the council members refusing to cut spending and balance the budget.”
And he is just getting started. On Tuesday Cote said, “I have no limit. I’m going to keep sending letters until people start to wake up. It will be in the thousands. I have a flyer campaign ready to go and we’re going to distribute them door-to-door.”
Cote’s flyer lists the names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, and photos of the six council members who voted for the tax, including Council President Bruce Place; Ward 1 Councilman Steven Colantuano; Ward 3 Councilwoman Camille Vella-Wilkinson; Ward 5 Councilman John DelGiudice; Ward 6 Councilwoman Donna Travis; and Ward 8 Councilwoman Raymond Gallucci. Cote is using his own money to fund the costs of, envelopes, paper and postage to support the campaign.
“I want to get everybody educated on what’s going on,” he said. “I’m sending the mailers out to people to let them know how this car tax has evolved, where the money is going, and that this is the time to get to the council hearings and start to make objections. Otherwise, we’ve lost the city totally. People are not engaged in the community and that’s why this is happening.”
In the letter, Cote informs citizens that their particular council member voted in favor of the tax. He also said the values on vehicles were purchased from the NADA book by the state to support tax revenue.
Further, he notes that the values given by the NADA are assigned as full clean retail, while less than five percent of all vehicles sold in the U.S. meet the criteria for this assessment.
“The value that is assigned to your vehicle is not realistic,” Cote said. “If these values were realistic I wouldn’t have a problem paying them. I’ve never been delinquent with a bill in my life. This is an effort to try to bring the community together and say, ‘You’ve got to stop this madness. We just can’t support this anymore. We can’t keep balancing the budget by creating these fictitious numbers.’”
He also includes information about how to research vehicle information on the NADA website, which is nadaguides.com. Additionally, he provides a website for the protest at cartaxprotest.spruz.com for citizens, as well as an e-mail address so people can inquire about the details of the tax. Cote said he has a team of five or six Warwick constituents, which he did not want to name, helping.
“You can contact us at cartaxrevolt@aol.com for information and updates,” he said in the letter. “We can also assist you in the appeal process.”
Cote said, “We need people to get involved. People need to voice their opinions, protect themselves, and let these so-called leaders know they exist and that they are in pain because of these taxes. They need to engage themselves because if they don’t this is just going to keep going and going. I’m so tired of talking to people and hearing them say, ‘Well, the politicians are just going to do it anyway, so what can we do?’ Well, if you take that attitude and stand on the sidelines and do nothing then you are correct. You’ve given up the ship.”
Since he has been more vocal about the vehicle tax, as he has attended multiple council meetings in the recent past and has voiced his opinions at City Hall, he said he has realized how angry other constituents are. He is often approached while he is in public in the general area of Warwick.
“My wife won’t even go with me to the supermarket with me now because people stop me and ask me what’s going on,” Cote said. “Last Friday night, we took our girls out to dinner in East Greenwich and the whole dinner [people from Warwick] were coming up to me. They are all upset about it. People keep saying the car tax is ridiculous.”
One of the main reasons he finds the tax “unjust,” is because he said the funds will be used to give city employees pay increases of 2.75 percent.
“The mayor has a lot of gall saying the city workers haven’t gotten a pay raise in two years when there are senior citizens like my mother who haven’t seen a Social Security raise in three or four years,” Cote said. “It’s just out of control. I’m so upset over what’s going on.”
Cote, who said he is paying about $700 per month for his property and vehicles taxes combined, hopes the community joins him during the meeting on Aug. 15 at City Hall from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Again, he wants more people to became aware and active in regards to the tax.
“It’s a really unfortunate situation but we have to take advantage of it,” he said. “If something good can come from this in terms of people voicing their opinions and their right to free speech, then so be it. Otherwise there’s nothing but more pain for the taxpayer. I’ve already contacted a lawyer and if we get enough people we will file a class action lawsuit. If nobody goes to the meeting, then we deserve everything they give us.”
He also said he fears that the council could change the tax again next year. That is why he feels it is vital for people to attend.
“What’s to stop the council from saying, ‘We need to raise revenue. Let’s raise everybody’s car another $10,000 in value,’” Cote said. “This is what I go to sleep at night thinking. I’m just trying to channel my aggravation and energy into something that could turn into a positive and wake people up.”
"Further, he notes that the values given by the NADA are assigned as full clean retail, while less than five percent of all vehicles sold in the U.S. meet the criteria for this assessment. " He is 100% right about this. Vehicle mileage and overall condition are not being taken into consideration, and every car is being valued as if it was in mint condition.
Good job cote.i support you 100% See you at the rally..
people need to remember this at the voting booth.
great job.
Great job Mr. Cote. All Warwick taxpayers should be supporting Mr. Cote's efforts. He is doing this for us. He is spending his own money, the least we can do is show up on August 15 to voice our outrage with these new taxes.
Have you seen him speak at a council meeteing. Its as though hes never researched anything he wishes to speak about,,,,, Great Job Bob. way to constantly complain. Learn the facts before opening up your yap.
@SteveD: Wake up. This new car tax is the most regressive type on low income families in the city. If you are not upset about it you must either have your head in the sand, or one of the cit leaders who proposed it.
Great Job, Bob this tax thing is ridiculous and painful. The city needs better people at next election, anybody could do better than this. I offered my car at city hall today for what they say it is worth, but they said no thanks and just took my money anyway. It's just wrong
He is doing more than anyone else to bring the issue to light. When I complained to the Mayor's office all I received was a form letter. "The budget I proposed, and which was ultimately approved by the City Council with reductions in certain line items, is not optimal, but, given the continued economic climate, compounded this past year by other factors, it is the most fiscally prudent budget necessary to maintain certain service levels." Other factors he speaks of are the floods and decrease in commercial property values.
"By state law we are required to assess motor vehicles at the NADA valuation guides." Note that state law probably does not mandate using the highest valuation assessment possible!
"Please be assured that my administration will continue to make additional changes to mitigate the effects of a bad economy on our taxpayers as we move forward." Oh but you will ensure that public employees receive their raise?
You used the vehicle tax to impose an unreasonable tax on the citizens of Warwick and to pay off the political favors that were called in. It is time for a change in Warwick. It is time to vote Avedisian out!
He is doing more than anyone else to bring the issue to light. When I complained to the Mayor's office all I received was a form letter. "The budget I proposed, and which was ultimately approved by the City Council with reductions in certain line items, is not optimal, but, given the continued economic climate, compounded this past year by other factors, it is the most fiscally prudent budget necessary to maintain certain service levels." Other factors he speaks of are the floods and decrease in commercial property values.
"By state law we are required to assess motor vehicles at the NADA valuation guides." Note that state law probably does not mandate using the highest valuation assessment possible!
"Please be assured that my administration will continue to make additional changes to mitigate the effects of a bad economy on our taxpayers as we move forward." Oh but you will ensure that public employees receive their raise?
You used the vehicle tax to impose an unreasonable tax on the citizens of Warwick and to pay off the political favors that were called in. It is time for a change in Warwick. It is time to vote Avedisian out!
I spent nearly 90 minutes in a phone conversation with my city council representative last night, Donna Travis, and while she and I don't allways agree on policy she has allways been very quick to respond to a question I might have and I have never known her to tell me anything that isn't factual.
I plan on attending the council meeting Monday but wanted to know more facts than stories. Unless my council person outright lied to me there seems to be some stretches of the truth in Mr. Cote's interview. 1) The revenue raised is not going to raises for city personel, but to meet a contractual mandate of restoring a pay cut that was agreed upon 3 yrs ago by their union and the city. 2) The city has no input at all in the valuation of a vehicle but has to rely on state provided numbers.
I hope I can bring these questions to light at the rally but if they turn out to be true as I believe they will I have a hard time blaming our city council. Most of our budget is state mandated, we our held hostage by the respective unions in our city, (see lawsuit article about WISE), and we as taxpayers suffer. I believe the true blame here lies with our General Assembly in Providence.
Personally I hope thousands show up at the rally, but let's not get caught up in mob mentality and blame the nearest person but get some real answers
1) The revenue raised is not going to raises for city personel, but to meet a contractual mandate of restoring a pay cut that was agreed upon 3 yrs ago by their union and the city.
Who ratified the contract three years? Councilwoman Travis was one of the council members who voted yes to the contract and these pay raises. This has nothing to do with the General Assembly.
Who is on the powerful City Finance Committee in charged with monitoring city spending? Councilwoman Travis, Councilman Gallucci and Councilman Colantuono, that's who.
During the past year they continued to approve city spending even though the city was projecting a multi-million dollar deficit. Why didn't they take measures to cut spending. The previous year they approved a budget with a line item in each department titled "Budget reduction Plan". The fact is most departments didn't make the necessary cuts in spending to meet the plan and the Finance Committee did nothing to demand that they make cuts to meet the plan.
Councilwoman Travis could have cut the appropriations in the budget air marked for raises, but she did nothing. She could have demanded that the mayor impose a 25% co-pay on retiree heathcare, (they get it free) costing taxpayers $8 million a year.
2) The city has no input at all in the valuation of a vehicle but has to rely on state provided numbers.
While that is true, the Coucilwoman level funded the school department, if she had done the same on the city side there would have been no need for any car tax or property tax increase.
Please stop listening to all the excuses by Mayor Avedisian and councilors Travis, Gallucci, Vella Wilkinson,Colantuono, Place, and DelGuidice. They lack the backbone necessary to make the tough decisions. At the budget hearing taxpayers testified to them to not cut their pay but to rescind all raises and simply level fund spending.
If you truely are tired of all the tax increases you will agree that we need a wholwsale change in the mayor's office and on the council next year. That process starts Monday, August 15 at the CAR TAX PROTEST in front of Warwick City Hall at 5 Pm.
The only state rule is that if a vehicle is in the official state "Red Book" then that basic value is prorated by age of car. Any car over 20 years old is not in this "Red Book." Some newer cars are not in it either. If a car is not in the Red Book, the city, not the state, sets the taxable value for that car. The City Assessor and the City Council are ducking under a falsehood when they say that the state decides the values of these older cars.
There are NADA used car value guidelines that the city can use for these cars, but the city has the option to set up any kind of sliding scale for the valuations. The mayor needs to come clean on this and explain it to the people in simple, direct language.
Once the car is over 25 years old, its value is $500 and it is not taxed.
This is what the lying legislators do for you. Ask your legislator if he voted for this law. Throw them out if they did. It's time for the voters of this state to stand up and start fighting back. This is your state - not theirs.
Either fight for it or leave it, it's that simple.
donna travis only does things that in her best interest i can not under stand why you people keep re electing her