Smiley unveils Providence's legislative wishlist: Here's what's on it

PROVIDENCE – Providence Mayor Brett Smiley unveiled his legislative agenda on Thursday, seeking to boost traffic camera surveillance, close a significant loophole in tax deductions for affordable housing, force landlords to pay for environmental violations and more.

An outline of the several bills Smiley wants to introduce into the General Assembly this year included state budget priorities: Asking the state to offer its full share of payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT payments) to the city, fund the city's Distressed Communities Relief Fund and support the city's large population of multilingual learners. But it also included new measures to address existing ills in Providence.

Buff Chace case highlights issues with 8 Law

Among them is what the mayor feels is abuse of 8 Law, which allows property owners to see tax cuts for affordable housing. The law is a sore point for the city, which was embroiled in controversy for offering wealthy developer Arnold "Buff" Chace tax breaks for 10 of his downtown buildings, even though they include commercial uses and are not 100% affordable.

Smiley now wants to modify the law to "apply only to affordable residential units and include new construction." That means no existing tax cuts will be erased, even if the city might feel they're unfairly given. But the cuts would be applied more sparingly to buildings containing affordable units, which the city defines as 80% of area median income.

"It’s not because of the Buff Chace situation, but it certainly has been highlighted but the Buff Chace situation," Smiley said. "But that’s not the only application where this is a problem."

The City Council took Chace to court over the tax breaks, hoping to unravel them. A judge decided last year that the council could move to undo them. Yet still, the situation remains unsettled.

Another of Smiley's financial stability goals: making another attempt to pass a law to change the payroll tax for nonprofits with PILOT agreements with the city. The change would designate part of that tax – for new employees only – to the city's general fund.

More: Judge rules PVD council can move to undo developer's controversial tax breaks. What's next.

Could more cameras come to Providence? Maybe, says city

Within Smiley's agenda is a series of quality of life issues, including noise violations and traffic violations. Smiley alluded to recruitment troubles at the Providence Police Department, making time precious in ensuring drivers are following the law.

To remedy that – and noisy cars – Smiley wants permission from the legislature to employ noise cameras and extra traffic surveillance. The city was reluctant to say that would necessitate more cameras. It's possible, the city said, that existing cameras may have the ability to monitor for noise. But it's also possible more cameras may be installed.

Here's how it would work: Drivers blaring music or motorcyclists with straight pipes would trigger cameras to capture photos of their license plates and issue citations. Similarly, drivers who gridlock traffic by sitting in the middle of intersections at red lights will have their plates photographed, too. (Fear not: The city says human monitors will be able to tell whether you've gotten unintentionally stuck in the middle when the light turns red.)

But you may not see the same forgiveness given to horn-honking. Irked drivers who honk are guaranteed no exemption from a citation. It will be up to the human monitor, the city said.

Emergency vehicles would be exempt.

Landlords beware: Smiley cracking down on environmental violations

As part of his quality of life priorities, Smiley also wants to force landlords to pay up when they don't properly recycle or dispose of trash. Right now, the city is only collecting 20% of fines for those violations. The mayor hopes to change that by amending the law so that outstanding fines could be added to the property owner's tax bill.

The city said that from 2019 to present, $2.75 million in such unpaid fines has accumulated.

Smiley wants to keep city out of court on education disputes with state

On education, the final point in Smiley's agenda, the mayor wants to clarify the Crowley Act, the 1997 law that essentially allowed Rhode Island Department of Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green to take over the Providence Public School District. Twice now, the city has gone to court with RIDE because of debate over how the law works, and the exact funding amount owed to the district.

As the law is currently written, Providence must fund the district "at the same level as in the prior academic year increased by the same percentage as the state total of school aid is increased."

More: Providence sues state education commissioner over funding for schools

"It doesn’t make any sense that the city would increase its percentage based on the statewide average increase," Smiley said.

As a result of such disputes, the city has spent money on legal fees, and at one point saw its distressed community funding withheld, even though the General Assembly approved it.

Smiley is seeking to amend the Crowley Act so that Infante-Green cannot withhold funding approved by the General Assembly, and he would like clarification on the amount the city owes the district.

What's next for Smiley's legislative agenda?

Emily Ward Crowell, Smiley's chief of staff, said the legislation was still being finalized, and that while the Providnece delegation will be sponsoring it, final decisions were not yet made.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Smiley wants noise cameras for Providence, affordable housing from lawmakers