Rhode Island
One Signature, No Vote: Woonsocket’s Ousted Ex-Mayor Gave a $3.8M Building a $2,925 Tax Bill—Now the Developer Is Suing the City
What happened
The owners of 43 Railroad St. in Woonsocket, a building of about 20 apartments over ground-floor commercial space near Ciro’s, say they hold a tax stabilization agreement (TSA) that sets their bill at $2,925 a year for the first three years. Former Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt signed the document on May 19, 2022, months before the City Council removed her from office in October 2022. Woonsocket says the deal is void. The owners, Madison Leigh Properties LLC, sued in Providence County Superior Court. The city then moved the case to U.S. District Court on Sept. 29, where it’s assigned to Chief Judge John McConnell. On Oct. 7, WPRI’s Target 12 led with the numbers: a $2,925 tax bill on a building bought for $3.8 million.
In an Oct. 5 memo to the council, City Solicitor Michael Lepizzera Jr. called the agreement “exorbitantly rich and long-term.” He wrote that no council ever considered or passed the ordinance that state and local law require before a mayor can sign one, and that “no statutorily required public hearing was advertised or held for the public to weigh in on such an extraordinary tax break.” At Monday’s council meeting he added several points. The seller signed the deal, not the current owner. The building was already finished, so the break didn’t encourage any new development. And the city will ask the court to declare that no valid TSA exists and award full back taxes. If the owners still haven’t paid, the property will go into the next tax sale. According to the solicitor, the owners skipped the normal route of paying and then appealing, and are “going for the whole enchilada.”
The owners rely on a 2016 city ordinance that listed more than 270 properties as eligible for tax stabilization. Council President Daniel Gendron, who served on the council that passed it, said it was only a framework. Each deal was supposed to be negotiated with the finance director and brought back to the council for its own approval. Councilor James Cournoyer said the city’s finance director at the time, Christine Chamberland, told him she was never consulted. The lawsuit also accuses former interim Tax Assessor John Pagliarini, a named defendant, of tying his help on the tax deal to the owner dropping an eviction case against a friend and subordinate of his. The council voted 7–0 to receive the solicitor’s letter and took no other action.
Original reporting
Read the underlying sources:
Uprise RI — Woonsocket Solicitor Calls Railroad Street Tax Deal Legally Void (Oct. 7, 2026)
RI Division of Municipal Finance — FY 2026 Rhode Island Tax Rates by Class of Property
Virtue Forge commentary
A tax break is still a government decision. When one property owner pays a sliver of the going rate, every other homeowner and business in Woonsocket makes up the difference. That’s why state law lets the council grant these deals only after an advertised public hearing, and only when the break actually brings in new investment. The law calls for a vote and a hearing, and it requires that the city get something in return. By the city’s account, this deal had none of those. One signature replaced the council’s vote, and the building was already standing.
This is how cronyism usually works: an executive acting alone with a pen and a contract, no hearing, no vote, no paper trail for the public to read. A free-market answer isn’t to hand out more selective breaks. It’s lower, uniform rates that everyone pays, so nobody has to court a mayor for a discount. When a city does choose to play favorites, it should at least do it in the open, with a recorded vote that people can see and judge.
What to watch: whether the federal court lets a mayor’s signature stand in for a council vote, whether Woonsocket audits the rest of the 270-property list for other agreements nobody voted on, and whether voters weigh this record when they choose the at-large council seats next month.