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North Kingstown staff recommends changing property exemptions to tax credits, lowering senior ownership bar
Summary
Town staff proposed converting assessment-based exemptions to a fixed tax-credit system and reducing the senior-ownership requirement from 15 to 5 years; assessor Deb Gano estimated the combined change would reduce revenue by about $48,000 under current rates and asked council to consider enabling legislation for FY2026.
Town staff presented recommendations on Nov. 18 to change how North Kingstown delivers many property tax exemptions, proposing a shift from assessment-based formulas to a tax-credit system and shortening the senior ownership requirement from 15 years to five.
Deb Gano, the town’s tax assessor, told the council that assessment-based exemptions vary with the town’s tax rate, which makes yearly benefit amounts unpredictable for residents on fixed incomes. A tax-credit system would set a fixed-dollar credit (for example, a $200 veterans credit) that appears directly on a property tax bill and does not fluctuate with rate changes.
Gano recommended moving to a tax-credit model where allowable caps would be adjusted (section references to the town code were cited) and flagged that enabling legislation at the state level may be required to convert certain exemptions. She specifically recommended lowering a 15-year ownership requirement for the senior exemption to five years to assist seniors who have moved into town more recently.
Councilors asked how the change would affect residents who pay little or no property tax and whether income-based senior exemptions would remain protected. Gano said income-based senior exemptions would be preserved: the town already provides a generous income-based senior program with multiple brackets and significant savings for lower-income seniors. She said under the staff proposal no current exemption recipient would lose benefits and, in aggregate, the recommended changes would have reduced town revenue in the most recent roll by approximately $48,000.
Town management said that $48,000 in lost revenue would translate to about $0.01 or less on the tax rate under the town’s memory-based estimate. Staff asked the council for direction and recommended bringing enabling legislation and draft ordinance language to the Dec. 16 meeting so the council could consider formal changes for FY2026.
Councilors also raised equity concerns about exemptions without income or wealth caps and urged continued discussion of tradeoffs between expanding exemptions and spreading tax burden across taxpayers.
