Join Us!

April  2025

Dear Friend and Fellow Taxpayer,

In the best interest of proudly serving you and the Richmond Community, we as members of the Richmond Republican Town Committee (RRTC) are writing to  extend an invitation for you to join us in our pursuit of a better community that aligns with our core value – keeping Richmond affordable for you and me.

Our primary goal is responsible spending and holding the line on taxes. We understand the importance of financial stability for our community members, and we strive to create an environment where families and businesses can flourish without being overburdened by excessive taxes.

When many of our members of the Richmond GOP ran for office in 2024, we knocked on hundreds of doors.  We heard you and others tell us – “I love Richmond, but I won’t be able to live here much longer if my property taxes continue to increase.”  If you feel that way, then I strongly encourage you to get involved now before we lose our town to elected officials who view us as revolving ATM machines.

In the spring of 2023, one of our members spent days researching our town budgets and town spending from Fiscal Year 2012 to 2023.  To this member’s astonishment, he found that our elected officials have allowed town spending to increase by 83.3%!  Yes, friends – Richmond has a spending problem!  And, Richmond is the second highest property taxed town in Rhode Island – yes, you heard that correctly.  We opposed the passage of the town budget in 2023 to make a statement that we weren’t going to accept a spending increase that was irresponsible….And we won! 

While we feel strongly about supporting our local school district, nearly 80 cents of every dollar of your property taxes are spent supporting the Chariho school district.  The Chariho school budget is $70 million and what do we have to show for it?  We’ve seen an alarming trend of declining student performance as just 41% of Chariho students are “meeting or exceeding” state standards.  We will continue to advocate for a fiscally responsible school budget, ensuring that our investment in education translates into tangible results of higher achievement for the children of our school district.

The Richmond Republican Town Committee is proud of our past accomplishments:

Assembled a team of 6 candidates to run for Town Council and School Committee and 5 out of 6 WON in November 2022!  The Chariho School Committee now has fiscal conservatives representing taxpayers bringing more of an ideological balance and lobbied to get “Public Comment” brought to the forefront of the Town Council agendas so “We the People” could be heard first……not last.  “We The People” deserve to be heard at the beginning of Town Council meetings.

· Defeated the school budget vote TWICE in the spring of 2022. By level funding the school budget, we essentially held the line on taxes.  This was a wake-up call to the Chariho School Department who would pass budgets without any regard for the taxpayers’ ability to pay.  The School Committee now regularly asks during budget time - “What will the taxpayers accept?”  Those words rarely were spoken before we got involved

· Defeated the Richmond town budget in June of 2023 - and we were chastised by the current Town Council President as being “irresponsible” for doing so.  What’s irresponsible is 83% in overall spending increases over 12 years.  These increases are unsustainable!

Populated local Boards and Commissions in the Town of Richmond with fiscal conservatives to offer a “check and balance” and ensure that fiscal conservative voices have representation on these committees

We are looking for like-minded individuals who will get involved in our local government to bring a system of checks and balances.  The reason why Richmond is unaffordable is because we have ALLOWED our school committee and town officials to pass budget after budget that are unsustainable to the taxpayer. Richmond is headed for a fiscal cliff and we have to get involved to stop this run-away train!

HERE IS YOUR CALL TO ACTION ….We are looking for people to join our Town Committee who are skilled writers, to watch or attend our Town Council and School Committee meetings to provide a system of checks and balances, to write a blog to update the taxpayers on the outcomes of those meetings, a graphic designer to help keep our website fresh and updated with timely information, and people who will help us bring our grassroots message of affordability directly to the people.

Please join the Richmond Republican Town Committee to be a part of positive changes in our community. Visit our website at www.RichmondRIGop.com or email us at RichmondRTC2024@gmail.com. We look forward to welcoming you to our community of like-minded individuals who are passionate about making a difference.

Sincerely,

Members of the Richmond Republican Town Committee