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Dear Justanidiot, blorjr, and John Stark,
I actually support these beach fees. It shows the rest of Rhode Island that our beaches have value. And having a cost-factor that's about half of the south county beaches, gives Warwick a competitive edge as well. We need to promote our beaches to the rest of R.I. (Maybe some of that money will go to that). Most of our surrounding towns/cities do not have salt-water beaches. Warwick has four beautiful beaches that should be attracting many more in-R.I.-tourists than they presently are. Tourists become new homeowners, bringing in new taxes, reducing taxes on the rest of us, and they will also increase our student population. Having beach fees will attract these new visitors due to the "perceived value" that the beach fees suggest. The added visitors will also be a welcome benefit to our Warwick businesses.
As far as the net revenue generated after paying expenses of collecting the fees, I don't think it will be much, but if the beach-fee program entices just one new homebuyer to move into Warwick, the residual income from that one new taxpayer will make it all worth the effort. While we're at it, I believe that "Welcome to Warwick" signs and some Christmas ornaments at City Hall would go a long way in attracting new residents. It's shameful that we don't have either. Drive through east Greenwich and there are 10,000 lights. Drive past Warwick City Hall and there isn't one! No Christmas ornaments at all. (They are all in storage.) That delivers a "Go away" message when we need to attract new residents to replace some of the 5,800 taxpayers that moved out of Warwick in the last ten years (according to the U.S. Census). My critics will say that the Census isn't right but they have no answer when you ask them to explain how our student population crashed from 17,000 to less than 9,000. As far as the beach passes, Veterans should go for free. Everyone else, including ALL politicians, should pay as stated above.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Rick Corrente
The Taxpayers Mayor
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