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Shannock Falls

Effective and Responsive Leadership

Richmond Democratic Town Committee

Vote Yes! 
Richmond Town Budget  
July 8, 2025

TOWN BUDGET REFERENDUM July 8, 2025, 8AM-8PM @ TOWN HALL This budget has full Council approval to support infrastructure, residents, and town employees with no tax increase.

On July 8th, the Richmond Town Budget will go to a second referendum.  It’s crucial to show up and vote YES!

 

The proposed FY26 budget, after the cuts from the first vote, unanimously approved by council still offers:

  • Critical Infrastructure: Increased funds for future road repairs and maintenance through the Capital Improvement Plan.

  • Department Restructure: Recreation and Human Services will combine into Community Services operated by one full-time position.

  • Town Staff: Providing competitive salaries for employees and police force to ensure we can retain and attract a skilled workforce. This includes efforts to retain Dept of Public Works staff needed to support road repairs.

  • Absorption of a 2% spending increase to the Chariho Regional School system without raising the tax rate.

 

You can see all of the budget products on the Richmond town website here. 

 

Specifically, their proposed budget has three key threads:

 

  • Maintain the current tax rate – The proposed budget keeps the tax rate the same for the third year in a row. The council achieved this by making and leveraging adjustments in other areas, namely:

  • Debt service reduced significantly in the upcoming year

  • Reduction of the fund balance from 17.77% to the recommended 16.7%

  • Reductions in unspent supply budgets 

As you look across tax rates in Rhode Island, there is a big jump in residential tax rates from towns with coastal property and those without. Rates where they have large, ocean-front houses tend to have less than half of the tax rate of inland towns, since the value of the ocean-front houses are so high. However, among the towns without coastal property, Richmond tax rates at $14.67 (per thousand of assessed value) is just below average for those towns (the average inland rate is $14.97).

 

  • Supporting road repairs – One of the common areas where Richmond is required to use bond funding is for road repairs. While the town tries to align road funding with  matching grants, this results in spikes in debt when the town has to repair or repave roads. With the drop in debt service as some of our past bonds are complete, the town is working to reinvest those back into fixing roads on a more sustainable timeline. Rather than going out to bond, the town is aiming to implement a strategy where they would fund a set of ongoing repairs to keep up, rather than having to go out to bond every few years. This provides a more sustainable investment in town infrastructure, for an issue that affects many residents. 

 

  • Investing in town employees – Retaining town employees has become one of our biggest challenges in Richmond. With a small staff, we’ve lost around several folks in the last couple years to opportunities with higher pay. A recent salary survey of towns in Rhode Island highlights how Richmond town employees tend to be on the lower end of reimbursement. It takes considerable time and money to bring a new employee up to speed on a job that covers a wide array of different tasks. To help support the staff, the council budgeted for a 3% cost of living adjustment to town wages (inflation was 2.9% last year, and the Social Security cost of living adjustment was 2.5%). They also included a $21k increase to the wage contingency for specific competitive or performance increases to offset the gap in Richmond salaries.

INVEST IN OUR WORKERS On July 8th, vote YES for the town budget to fund our town workers. Running a town as big as Richmond requires a local touch. Our town staff keeps things moving, DPW clears snow, tree limbs, and fixes our roads. And our police not only keep us safe, they understand our community! VOTE YES FOR RICHMOND!
INVEST IN OUR ROADS On July 8th, vote YES for the town budget to fund road repairs. Investment today reduces the need to borrow money in the future to repair and maintain roads. We'll save money on debt interest and avoid bigger costs down the road.
RICHMOND TOWN COUNCIL PRESIDENT SAMANTHA WILCOX "After the failure of the first municipal budget referendum, the Richmond Town Council responded to the concerns of some residents that spending was too high and compromised by reducing several line items. We reduced $244k from the budget in the following areas: • $60k - grant writer • $34k — merit-based raises • $130k - DPW vehicles • $20k - parks/playground equipment Thankfully, we voted unanimously to preserve the majority of our investments, including the 3% raises for all employees, most of the merit-based/comparative raises, funding for road repairs and the restructuring of recreation and human services."

The opposition has been rallying their supporters to vote no on any budget that gets proposed other than level funding. Level funding – keeping the same expenses as last year – will result in having to remove funding for road repairs, staff retention efforts, and a restructured recreation department. 

  • As a result of the previous rejected budget, the town council made tough decisions to remove a town grant writer position, cut needed heavy equipment purchases for the Department of Public Works by more than half (cutting $130k out of $230k total), cut funding for town worker salaries by $34k, and remove a $20k funding line for playgrounds.

  • The opposition is still not satisfied by these cuts, even though the tax rate is not changing. In the previous budget vote, the budget failed 380 to 398. Richmond has a total of 6,651 eligible voters, so this represents just under 12% of Richmond voters. They will come out again in force to oppose any budget vote, and if the budget fails again, all of the investments to move our town forward will have to be stripped out. Once this happens, the opportunity to invest in OUR community is gone. If we want to keep our town staff and conduct road repairs over the next year, we need everyone to vote YES on the budget.

 

Richmond is not deficit spending. The town isn’t borrowing money or issuing bonds, which would require a separate referendum. Instead, the budget draws from the fund balance. This is unspent taxpayer funds from prior years (for example snow plowing costing less than expected). Auditors recommend keeping 16.7% of the budget in that fund, and Richmond currently exceeds that due to higher revenues and unspent funds. The excess is being used for necessary road repairs, helping avoid future borrowing and interest payments.

 

Using the fund balance annually for small-scale road work creates a sustainable approach and keeps the town flexible for future needs. Unlike debt, which ties funds to specific projects, this method maintains financial adaptability.

 

Additionally, wage increases are not excessive—they’re essential. Richmond ranks among the lowest in employee pay, according to a recent League of Cities and Towns report. This has led to high turnover and difficulty attracting qualified candidates. To retain key staff—like police, DPW workers, and administrative employees—we must offer competitive, livable wages.

 

The proposed budget is essential to keeping the town operating, getting our roads back to good condition, and supporting the future of Richmond. Vote YES on July 8th – from 8 am to 8 pm at the Richmond Town Hall.

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