PRUDENCE ISLAND — The board of the Prudence Island Water District will hold its second public information workshop on Saturday, July 29, on its intention to levy a property tax when it passes its budget for the next fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

The workshop will run from 1-2 p.m. at Union Church, 3 Pier Road, Prudence Island.

In a press release sent out Monday, the District states it’s had the authority to tax real property within the District since its creation through legislative action in 2004. However, the District has never implemented this authority and instead relied exclusively on collection of semi-annual water service fees to pay for all operating expenses, capital expenses and debt service, according to the press release.

During the past year, the District has reviewed its taxing authority and the need for additional debt service as part of a long-term plan to continue improving not only its water quality and upgrading its infrastructure, but to also increase potential capacity for new customers, according to the District. The plan will also address temporary interruptions in the availability of one or more wells, and improve the accessibility and quantity of water available for firefighting within the District.

According to the Board, these projects will equally benefit not only its water customers but also the property owners within the District that are not currently purchasing water service from the district. 

“The Board feels that it is unfair to place the full financial burden of these system improvements solely on current water users when they benefit all property owners within the District,” the press release stated. “Therefore, the District intends to move to a budget that is based on funding operations with a combination of water service fees and debt service through a District-wide tax on real property. This funding structure is common practice in water districts throughout the State of Rhode Island.

Full implementation of the budgetary decision and setting of the tax rate will occur when the Board adopts its budget for fiscal year 2018 (Oct. 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018) at its monthly meeting on Saturday, Sept. 16.