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I don't think that is quite right. non-resident property owners do in fact benefit from state services. There are state roads, there are state police, there's the airport, there are dollars spent drawing tourists in (for those non-resident owners who are trying to make some rental money, for instance). There's even the governmental structure itself which is of some value even to a non-resident property owner. You can complain about the inefficiencies of course, but every person who steps foot in the state or owns property in the state does get something in return for whatever dollars the state collects. How much value they get for their dollar is a different story.
Further, when you buy a property in a community, it does not exist in a vacuum. Services such as education bolster communities. Imagine that the state stopped investing entirely in any of those state services. The value and desirability of those +$1M properties would drop.
I am referring to the meals and beds taxes local communities are forced to charge. The RI communities don't see any of those $$$ returned. Whereas communities on Cape Cod which charge additional meals and beds taxes do get a large percentage of them back from the Commonwealth to help support the tourist infrastructure and to help alleviate the tax burden on the Cape property owners.
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
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I see. But I still think the tourists and the towns they visit get something from the cash they're compelled to pay. State government does serve a purpose, and I rattled off a very incomplete list.
Who funded the visitors center in Newport? Was that the state?
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
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^Why is that surprising, when the race is expanded beyond the dysfunctional two party status quo? Is it really a problem that there wasn't a majority in support of Raimondo? What if Fung had won with 37% of the vote? Would you feel the same way?
I see. But I still think the tourists and the towns they visit get something from the cash they're compelled to pay. State government does serve a purpose, and I rattled off a very incomplete list.
Who funded the visitors center in Newport? Was that the state?
You have to go back to 1973 when the destroyer base was relocated plunging Newport into dire straights. We now call what happened to Newport as BRAC Realignment.....there really wasn't a name then. Businesses closed, property values tumbled to the basement, population declined. IRS called my father in for an audit because of the losses he was showing on his rental property. Boy... was he the wrong person to audit.....a retired Navy captain! And yes, he was allowed the losses.
The Feds paid for the redevelopment of the downtown area......the waterfront as it is now... with America's Cup Avenue..........didn't exist.
The area to the north of the Visitor's Center Building where the buses pull in.....is now owned by the State. It wasn't always. Mass Mutual owns the Marriott Hotel building............and I'll have to pull the Chain of Titles for the rest of the property from Long Wharf north as the plat maps I have haven't been updated by the City in eons....and it's been chopped and subdivided many times.
Of note, Broadway, in Newport..............it's a State road.........in dire need of repair. The State has gotten Federal highway funds for part of the project, but Newport has had to loan the State, $1.3 million to get it done.. with a promised payback from the State within 2 years. Project is/was supposed to start this April. We'll see.
The work which had/had been going on at the Gateway center........has been funded by Newport's Sandy money from the Feds.
Of note, Broadway, in Newport..............it's a State road.........in dire need of repair. The State has gotten Federal highway funds for part of the project, but Newport has had to loan the State, $1.3 million to get it done.. with a promised payback from the State within 2 years. Project is/was supposed to start this April. We'll see.
Broadway is a City street, not State. The reconstruction is a Federal Aid project, which is administered by the State, and the State agreed to cover the 20 percent matching funds.
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