‘Not a Lot of Wiggle Room’ In Next Year’s Budget

Members of the North Kingstown Town Council will have plenty of reading material this week as they received the town manager’s budget for fiscal year 2014 at its Monday night meeting.

According to Town Manager Michael Embury, taxpayers will see a big change in their tax rate because of a property revaluation. Real estate values are anticipated to drop by an average of 6 percent across town. To offset that, the tax rate is expected to jump from $17.51 to $19.37 for next year. Those figures may change, Embury warned.

Embury’s 2014 budget will reflect a 2.95 percent increase in the tax levy, below the 4 percent maximum allowed by state law. Approximately $1.5 million of the additional tax revenue will go toward the schools while $632,000 will go to the town side. The remaining amount will go toward the town’s debt service – an increase of $379,263 from last year.

“There’s not a whole lot of wiggle room on the town side,” said Embury. “This is a very tight budget.”

For the average home, the new anticipated tax rate of $19.37 means an additional $168 in taxes for the average home in North Kingstown – roughly valued at $310,000. For the average NK home, a taxpayer will be paying about $6,000 in property taxes – with approximately $4,200 going toward the schools and the remaining $1,700 going toward the municipal side.