Chamber Rescinds Tax Exemption Request

The Southern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce withdrew its request for the $7,000 tax abatement granted by the Town Council in January, citing the negative debate around the issue.

In a March 7 statement by Clay Johnson, chairman to the chamber’s board of directors, to the Town Council, Johnson rescinded the tax abatement request but asked the council to amend its budget to reflect a $7,000 fund transfer instead.

“We recognize you face many difficult budgetary decisions,” the statement reads. “However, we believe that your contribution to the Southern Rhode Island Chamber will be returned to the town of South Kingstown many times over in the form of jobs and increased tax revenue.”

Since the chamber built its headquarters at 230 Old Tower Hill Road in 2007, it has received grant transfers from the town to help cover the cost of its property tax bill. The town entered into a $7,000 annual agreement. For the first three years, the town paid $3,000 of that to the chamber to hang holiday decorations – like banners and wreaths – in the town.

In March of 2010 the town terminated the holiday decoration program with the chamber, giving the full $7,000 transfer toward its tax bill.

After the council’s Jan. 23 decision to award the tax exemption to the chamber, . Under the Rhode Island General Law, South Kingstown may grant tax exemptions only to organizations “which is directly related to the actual conduct of the charitable purposes of a non-profit organization recognized as such by the state of Rhode Island.”

Although the chamber is a nonprofit organization, its agenda could not be expressly dubbed charitable so at a subsequent meeting the council directed the town solicitor to investigate the chamber’s charitable works and whether it qualified for an exemption under state law.

“As a taxpayer in South Kingstown, I urge you not to grant a request for a $7,000 grant or donation,” said Maureen Martin, resident. “As I talked previously, I believe they are not a 501c3 - which makes them a charitable organization - which would, I think, put them under the category of being eligible for some sort of tax abatement or grant.”

The Town Council will address the matter of whether to transfer $7,000 from its budget to the Southern Rhode Island Chamber at its budget work session on Thursday, March 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Hall, 180 High St.

In other business:

The Town Council granted a theater license to the Contemporary Theater Company for its new location at 323 Main St.

The Town Council voted to increase the number of limited Class B liquor licenses – or beer and wine service licenses – from four to five and granted the added license to Wood House Fire N’ Coal Pizza, located at 402 Main St.