Foster voters are being asked this fall to decide whether the town should start splitting its real estate conveyance tax revenue with the Foster Land Trust, instead of sending the trust all of it as the current charter requires. Question 8 would guarantee the trust no less than half of that money going forward, with voters able to approve more at a future financial town meeting, according to a council member quoted in a recent council recap.
The question is one of three charter changes the Foster Town Council placed before voters this cycle, a process that happens every five years. As reported by Uprise RI, the current charter dedicates all conveyance tax revenue to the land trust, and members of the charter review commission and the board of canvassers have said they disapproved of how the proposed changes made it onto the ballot, citing insufficient meetings and public hearings to properly review them.
How Foster's Conveyance Tax Works
The conveyance tax is a property sales tax split between the state and Rhode Island towns, with the state determining how much goes to the municipality. Foster voters approved giving the land trust 100 percent of its share of conveyance fees in 2020, and in 2012 they allowed the trust to invest its reserve funds as it saw fit, according to seed facts reported by The Valley Breeze. This year, Foster's conveyance tax take is reported at $83,000, against an $18 million town budget, while the land trust's own operating budget runs around $22,000.
Supporter Lynn Rider laid out the arithmetic for voters: splitting the $83,000 evenly and having the trust repay the town's $22,000 in costs would leave roughly $18,000 for the trust to invest in property, per the Valley Breeze reporting. Rider calculated the town's own share from an even split at around $41,500 — less than one percent of the municipal budget, but equal to half of the land trust's entire budget. Rider also said the land trust costs taxpayers nothing and repays its budgeted operating and capital expenses every year.
Dueling Numbers On The Trust's Reserves
The financial dispute runs deeper than the ballot measure's headline split. Linda Los Tibbetts told the Foster council that the town website's explanation of the land trust's reserves and capital funds was inaccurate, according to the same Uprise RI recap, and that it omitted pending capital budget requests of $230,000 approved for fiscal 2025-26 and $112,500 for fiscal 2026-27. She put the trust's reserves closer to $360,000, excluding outstanding operational and capital project invoices — a figure built over 36 years through high-interest savings, grants, property sales and forest product sales, per the Valley Breeze account.
Los Tibbetts said roughly $700,000 of the trust's balance is tied up in projects delayed by permitting, and that some of that money came from grants, property sales and forest products rather than conveyance tax at all. She cited monthly figures from a town finance speaker showing the trust received $10,296 in July and $12,555 in August. The Valley Breeze reporting separately quotes land trust supporter Heidi Rogers putting reserves at approximately $700,000 as of June 30, including funds set aside for dam repairs and ongoing property care — a close but not identical figure to the one Los Tibbetts cited for the same account.
Monthly conveyance receipts vary with the local real estate market: the trust typically takes in $1,000 to $2,000 in winter months and $8,000 to $12,000 in summer, since receipts depend entirely on how many properties sell in a given stretch. One resident estimated the proposed 50/50 split would raise general-fund money by only about one-quarter of 1% while cutting the trust's ability to save for capital work by far more than half, the council recap notes. Another resident pegged the town's gain in a good year at roughly $40,000 — a rounding error against an $18 million budget.
Arguments For And Against The Split
Rogers, who has urged voters to approve Question 8, argued that Foster has limited revenue sources beyond property taxes, a small residential tax base, and that tax-exempt properties constrain the town's budget and its potential for commercial development. She noted the land trust holds more than 1,000 tax-exempt acres and said Foster needs the flexibility to retain property for potential commercial use given its narrow tax base. Rogers said the change is not personal, is meant to help the tax base, and would not touch funds the trust already has. She added that the state's allocation of conveyance fees and the town's subsequent use of its own share are separate decisions, and that while the charter designates public tax funds for conservation, sharing that revenue could support other community needs. The land trust, Rogers said, does ongoing work preserving open space, maintaining trails and running programs.
Opponents countered that the trust's growth has been slow and deliberate. Rider said the trust has purchased just 17.5 acres over 35 years, with many of its properties donated or maintained in partnership with the Department of Environmental Protection. Once conveyance money is split away from the trust, Rider warned, it will not come back, and land the trust fails to protect is lost permanently. Steven Plouffe argued every acre that goes untaxed is a loss for the town, pointing to the flip side of the land trust's conservation mission. The town sent residents a mailer last week explaining the proposed charter changes ahead of the vote.
A Similar Fight Playing Out In Coventry
Foster is not the only Rhode Island town wrestling with a land trust funding question this cycle. Coventry voters decide Tuesday whether to cut the Coventry Land Trust's share of the conveyance tax from 50% down to 25%, a change that requires a townwide vote because the split is written into that town's charter, per Uprise RI's separate coverage. The Coventry Land Trust's treasurer reported a fund balance of roughly $3.2 million at the end of July, against an approved annual operating budget of just $8,077 and a capital budget of about $55,000 — a far larger reserve than the figures discussed in Foster.
Separately, Rhode Island General Laws § 44-25-2 provides that no transfer tax or fee may be imposed by a land trust or municipality when the state or one of its political subdivisions acquires real estate, a statute that governs conveyance-tax mechanics statewide regardless of how individual towns split their local shares.
