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WEST WARWICK -- Tax relief was the talk of the day at Paul\'s restaurant, on Main Street, where Harrah\'s Entertainment assembled a half-dozen residents to discuss the casino over cups of hot coffee.
\"We need that tax base,\" said Steven Archambault, owner of Archway Bus Company. \"It\'s an industrial park; industry goes in there. It\'s better that [the casino] than a nuclear plant or a coal crusher in there.\"
The get-together was sponsored by Rhode Islanders for Jobs and Tax Relief, an organization bankrolled by Harrah\'s. Moderated by Harrah\'s outreach coordinator, former West Warwick Mayor J. Michael Levesque, it focused mainly on the tax relief Harrah\'s pledges to bring to the state.
Voters here and statewide will decide on Nov. 7 whether to approve a state constitutional amendment allowing Harrah\'s, in partnership with the Narragansetts, to build a $1-billion casino in the West Warwick Business Park. Question 1 on the referendum ballot pledges that state revenue from the casino would go to \"property tax relief.\"
Rhode Islanders pay 45 percent more in property tax than the national average, according to the business-backed Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council. This summer, Governor Carcieri signed a property-tax-cap bill that would lower, in stages, the 5.5-percent cap on local tax-levy increases to 4 percent.
\"I know I speak for every senior citizen when I say I\'d like to stay in my home as long as I\'m able to keep it and be a burden to no one,\" said Sue Giusti, 75, of West Warwick. \"The only way that will happen is if the taxes are reduced.\"
Lifelong West Warwick resident Frances Padula, 76, echoed Giusti\'s sentiment.
\"We\'re losing our homes, and no one is worried about the senior citizens in town,\" Padula said. \"I know because I\'m one. We want to stay in our homes, and we can\'t if we don\'t put industry in the town.\"
Most of the participants said allocating the money for property-tax relief in the Constitution would make a big difference, but everyone wasn\'t convinced the casino would be a good deal for the state.
\"They won\'t tell us what\'s going on; Las Vegas isn\'t telling us how it\'s destroying families,\" said Susan Curria, a Coventry homeowner. \"They tell us it\'ll help with taxes, but they\'re not saying what it will do to the people.\"
The gathering was invitation-only, and Curria hadn\'t been invited. She said she heard about it from a friend and decided to stop by. Those already seated invited her to join them, she said.
\"When I came and sat down, I didn\'t know if they were for or against the casino,\" Curria said. \"I didn\'t realize they were all supporters.\"
Clare Eckert, spokeswoman for Rhode Islanders for Jobs and Tax Relief, said she doubted Curria\'s attendance was by happenstance. After the gathering broke up, Eckert questioned Curria about how she learned about the event. The two two talked briefly, then Curria left.
\"If she had been willing to say how she found out about a private event that included only four or five people, I\'d say she was being honest,\" Eckert said. \"Her refusal and then immediate departure once the issue was pressed a bit told me there was some undercurrent of opposition that perhaps had been staged.\"
The two main anti-casino groups denied knowing about the event, let alone setting someone up to crash it.
\"This is the first I\'ve heard of it,\" said Thomas K. Jones, vice president of West Warwick Citizens Against the Casino. \"I have no knowledge of anyone going from our group. If they want to have their rallies, they have a certain right to have them.\"
Tim Costa, executive director of the opposition group Save Our State, said he also didn\'t know about the event until asked about it by a Journal reporter, but he lauded Curria.
\"I have no idea who dropped in, but they were probably better informed than Harrah\'s,\" he said. \"I don\'t know where the event was, but hopefully, someone spoke the truth while Harrah\'s was spouting lies about property-tax relief.\"
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