The Rhode Island legislature, showing its great capacity for procrastination, is scrambling like mad to pass a whole bunch of stuff before the current session ends. One bill that passed the Senate yesterday among the flurry was a new requirement for state businesses who subsidize their employees parking costs to offer RIPTA passes in lieu of paying their garage bills. Someone on Smith Hill is obviously reading the URBlog.
Sounds like a good plan to me. Will it work? I don't know, but it's worth a shot. Preferably there would be a support program to go along with it, to highlight the many benefits of bus commuting over highway traffic and to maybe convince suburban white folks that buses aren't nearly as scary as they think.
The Historic Tax Credit program, which I linked to a while back, may be put on a one-year hiatus to examine its cost-benefit ratio. This program creates financial incentives to developers who wish to renovate or redevelop historic buildings in RI, and often provides the margin which turns an economically impossible project into reality. Debate on the moratorium, suggested by the State House Finance Committee, should take place this week.
[T]he state has given out many more tax credits than lawmakers anticipated when they established the program, said House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino, D-Providence. "It grew bigger than we expected," he said.Costantino said the moratorium would give lawmakers time to analyze whether the state is indeed achieving the golden returns on the credits that developers have predicted.
Costantino said the moratorium would last one year and would not affect the dozens of development projects that have already applied for the credits.
When former Gov. Lincoln Almond signed the credits into law in 2001, state officials predicted it would cost the state $16 million in income taxes over five years.
The state now plans to give out an estimated $134 million in credits over six years.
I imagine even with the greater-than-expected popularity of the program the economics make sense, and that's to say nothing of the non-quantifiable effects of having booming urban redevelopment. The tax credits have already made possible the conversion of the Masonic Temple to a hotel, the Rising Sun Mills project in Olneyville, the Royal Mills Project in West Warwick and the critical-mass breaking Peerless Building project Downcity.
Grow Smart RI has sent out a legislative alert asking concerned citizens to contact their legislators and the Governor (who does not support the moratorium). They cite a preliminary report that shows for each tax credit dollar spent, $5 is pumped into the local economy in the construction phase alone. They show $21 million in revenue returns to the state before factoring in long-term economic benefits (and, they point out, this $21M comes in before the credits are even eligible to be redeemed).
The Urblog can't quibble with making sure the program is economically sound, but we suggest a cap on next years tax credits rather than a moratorium (if well enough can't be left alone while studying the issue). The momentum generated by these credits should not be brought to a halt. Governor Carcieri has the right idea in saying that there's only so many qualifying projects out there, let's not be too drastic.
UPDATE: "House leaders agreed yesterday to drop a proposed moratorium on historic preservation tax credits." Excellent!
"Business untended ... will in fact turn [downtown] into a mall." -Bristol Resident Keith Maloney
"If you're going to bring business to Bristol, you play by our rules." - Councilman Raymond Cordeiro
Bristol, RI, home of the nation's oldest Fourth of July parade, just passed some zoning regulations that will essentially restrict chain restaurants in the historic downtown district. The scope of the codes could make Bristol a model for other communities concerned about the effects of homogenized commerce on their sense of place. Well, most likely a model for other rich communities who can afford to play hardball with developers and franchisees.
We applaud this, if for no other reason than to protect Bristol Bagel Works, the best bagels in the state.
Will other Rhode Island communities follow suit? So far I've heard nothing about it, but I'm sure local governments are looking at it, especially in places like East Greenwich and North Kingstown. Some chains in Providence (Home Depot springs to mind) have made aesthetic concessions, but there's not much resistance to the actual type of business that comes in.
Here's what got this ball rolling.
ProJo.com: Cicilline urges study of transportation needs in Providence area
Prov Mayor David Cicilline wants the lege to create a commission to study transportation issues holistically in the state's urban center. He wants the General Assembly to create a 17-member legislative study commission on transportation and appropriate $375,000 for the study. Besides Providence, the study area would include North and East Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Cranston and Warwick. Commission members include Grow Smart RI's executive director and the head of RIPTA.
This is a very welcome (and seemingly out of the blue) initiative by the mayor. Smart growth is thrown out there, and with towns like North Providence and East Providence who are currently embracing New Urban principles, there's a good chance that this type of study will lead to reforming some areas with transit-oriented designs.
On the subject of parking, I hope the mayor's director of administration John C. Simmons was misquoted or something when he said: "Maybe we [just] need to build two parking garages that are in an area that could bring people in and out of the downtown area so that we don't have as much congestion either at night or in the morning." I'd like him to explain how inviting more cars downtown will ease congestion anywhere, but whatever. This isn't to say that Providence doesn't need a parking garage or two, one of which is going forward to construction soon.
Unlike his predecessor Buddy Cianci, David Cicilline doesn't get mentioned in the same sentence with the phrase "urban visionary," but if he keeps this kind of forward thinking up, he will be.
BONUS: Here's a free suggestion to the commission: offer incentives to downtown businesses to promote employee bus ridership via discounted or free bus passes. There's an excellent opportunity to test this program as downtown will soon have a large influx of GTECH'ers while their new headquarters will contain only 80 spaces for hundreds of employees.