'Why now?': New ProvPort deal closer to approval despite vocal opposition

PROVIDENCE – The City Council's Finance Committee has approved a 30-year tax deal for ProvPort, the nonprofit agency that operates the city's deep-water port, and also extended its lease and approved a bond indenture – all despite vocal opposition from residents and current and newly elected leaders.

The city's current tax exemption agreement with ProvPort doesn't expire until 2024, the lease isn't up until 2036, and there is not yet a master plan for the port.

In a tumultuous meeting Monday night, Councilwoman Helen Anthony made a motion to continue the matters, feeling they were rushed without enough community input, but the motion died and the vote occurred moments later. Councilman Pedro Espinal, frustrated that no discussion had occurred immediately before the vote, gave comment after the fact, calling the deal a "blank check" and repeating Anthony's criticisms.

Espinal said he was "not fully informed" going into the meeting and now has "just got to pray" that the plan is a good one.

The vote followed a hearing for which rows of opponents filed into the council chambers, some holding signs bearing such sentiments as "HELL NO" and "WHY NOW?"

Some – including two council members present – raised concerns that the approvals were happening too fast. Ahead of the meeting, Councilman John Goncalves said the city was "just trying to ram it through" without due diligence, citing the tax stabilization agreement approved for Providence Place mall, which was also green-lighted quickly as the current council wraps up its term.

During the hearing, Councilman Oscar Vargas took the podium to take issue with how quickly the tax deal for the port was moving.

The tax deal and lease extension are on the City Council's agenda for its meeting Thursday night at 6 p.m. The ordinance that holds the tax agreement must be passed twice to gain full approval. The resolution that holds the lease extension and the bond indenture needs only one passage.

Under the new deal, ProvPort would increase its payments in lieu of taxes to the city from 5.5% of its revenues to 7%. That means for 2023, when ProvPort would have paid $620,000, it would instead pay $840,000. By 2053, at the end of the agreement's life, ProvPort would have paid the city nearly $35.6 million.

Additionally, ProvPort would contribute 1% of its general revenue to a fund for sustainable projects, and another 1% to another fund another "community benefit fund." Throughout the life of the agreement, ProvPort would contribute more than $10 million total into those two funds.

In written testimony, the Providence Sustainability Commission, which is tasked with advising the city on environmental issues, echoed the concern about due diligence, arguing that "there is no justification for urgency in rushing this important decision right now."

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The commission added that the deal doesn't guarantee developments in the port will align with the city's Climate Justice Plan, which contains a multitude of green objectives, such as healthy air and reduced pollution. The plan identifies the port as a contributor to pollution, and explains that "communities living near the port-area are mostly low-income communities of color, and are therefore bearing most of the burden of regional fossil fuel distribution."

According to the Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence far surpasses any other municipality in the state when it comes to primary asthma hospitalization rates. Cases are concentrated near the port in South Providence and Washington Park rather than areas such as the East Side.

"We can't breathe, basically," said Linda Perri of the Washington Park Association. "It's at a tipping point."

Providence resident Everett Pope said there was a "serious lack of transparency and community involvement" for a decision that would mean "people are going to be impacted for quite literally the remainders of their lives."

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However, Corey Tabor, president of International Longshoremen's Association Local 1329, said it wasn't fair to blame the port, citing the amount of revenue it generates.

ProvPort spokesman Bill Fischer also said the blame was unfairly placed, showing a reporter a map of the entire Port of Providence, and the chunk that ProvPort runs, which is a roughly 135-acre piece of the whole.

Fischer called ProvPort the "least of the problems within the Port of Providence" and contended that it "is not the creator of all the ills cited tonight." Fischer said ProvPort was obligated to present its proposed deal, which he described as "very financially solid."

Three newly elected council members – Miguel Sanchez, Justin Roias and Sue Anderbois, all of whom would have had a chance to vote on the agreement had it been held for the incoming council to evaluate next year – strongly opposed the deal.

"Everyone's kind of saying there's no need to rush this," Sanchez told the committee, contending that if it waited for the next council – which will have a handful of progressive members – it wouldn't pass.

Anderbois, who previously chaired the Sustainability Commission, also voiced her criticism of the speed with which the vote was occurring, wanting a chance to negotiate the port's future while sitting as a councilwoman.

Asked whether the process should wait, Keith Stokes, the city's director of business and development and the head of the Office of Economic Opportunity, had this to say: "The process started almost two and a half years ago – the negotiation. The timing is the timing. … That’s a question for the City Council."

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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New ProvPort deal closer to approval feels 'rushed through'