EAST PROVIDENCE — The Council approved several appropriations at its Tuesday night, Jan. 9, meeting, the one with most affect on residents throughout East Providence contracting for the impending state-mandated full revaluation of properties across the city.

Complete revaluations must be performed every nine years according to Rhode Island General Law. The reval will start shortly and must be completed by December 31, 2024. The potential changes to property owners' taxes will take effect during Fiscal Year 2024-25 when bills are issued in June of 2025. Any appeals are likely to take place in the first and second calendar quarters that year.

As defined by RIGL, during a full revaluation "all" real estate is measured both inside and out. A statistical revaluation takes in only those properties which were sold within the previous year or have had physical changes to them.

Some will recollect the city only just completed a statistical reval in 2022. Because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic 2020 into the following year, East Providence and a handful of other municipalities around Rhode Island were granted a waiver from conducting the statistical reval during the required timeframe.

Last week, the Council backed the submission of its current partner, though which now operates under a new name following a recent acquisition. Catalis Tax and CAMA, Inc., which used to operate locally as Northeast Revaluation Group, offered to perform the work for $573,200.

Its' bid was chosen over that of the city's long-time previous valuation partner, Vision Government Solutions, which submitted a proposal ranging from $739,000-$819,000.

Asked to provide an overview on the bidding process, city side Finance Director Malcolm Moore said January 9, "This is same company as we used before...They're by far the low bidder...It's same software. It is a different name because that company was bought, but it will be the same people, the same people as the last go-round."

Moore continued, saying the administration does not expect residents to incur the massive 30-40 percent increases they did during the '22 statistical reval. Instead, it should only be a single digit uptick for those that see them.

"So far this year (the revaluations) are more back to normal...back in line, so at least right now we shouldn't have the big fluctuations we did last time," Moore added.

Highway truck purchase
In addition, the Council supported a requisition from the Highway Division of the Department of Public Works for the purchase of a new "JetVac" truck in the amount of $114,453.

A jetvac, or vacuum, truck, is used as part of regular maintenance of streets or sewers. The expenditure was included DPW's FY23-24 Capital Budget requests.

City Hall flooring
The Council also approved a requisition of $129,600 to pay for the purchase and installation of new carpeting and luxury vinyl flooring at City Hall.

Of the five bids submitted the administration suggested and the Council backed that of Ruggieri Brothers, Inc., based in Cranston. The project will be paid through funding in the FY 2023-24 Capital Improvements budget.