Scituate Democrats

10/14/2026

Margaret "Peggy" McGraw Long has been the heartbeat of Scituate Town Hall, serving with compassion and grace as our elected Town Clerk for 26 years. She also spent 10 years serving on the Scituate Town Council, a testament of her dedication to our community.
Now that she's announced her retirement, The SDTC is proud to honor Peggy's dedication on Thursday, October 29th.
Attendees can expect appetizers, cash bar, door prizes and a welcoming social environment!
Learn more and purchase tickets here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/honorpeggy2026

10/12/2026

Continuing our Claims vs Public Records series, this recent article sheds a bit more light as to the type of local government Scituate is dealing with; voters deserve better.

SCITUATE – Most Town Council members chose to remain silent on the topic of the town’s elderly tax freeze on Oct. 8, even as they were peppered with questions about how certain members ended up being added to the list for the benefit. Council President Charles Collins said the reason the tax fr....

10/12/2026

Protect your right to change or amend the proposed town budget at the Financial Town Meeting! Help us spread the word.

10/11/2026

Ponder this quote in light of the town council’s actions last Thursday night. Councilman Grande nor any other Council person would commit to a public hearing as to how Councilmen Collins and McCormick were placed on the tax freeze list in the first instance. Councilwoman Yeaw attempted to make a motion to add such an inquiry to the agenda but none of her fellow council members would second the motion! What would T Paine think! Watch the meeting here!

https://clerkshq.com/Scituate-ri?docId=oct08_26ag&path=Scituate_Docket%2Coct08_26ag%2C

Please share!

10/10/2026

Thank you to all our friends and supporters who reached out to us to encourage us and thank us for our work in gathering information and facts about the tax freeze scandal. We will continue to tear down the road blocks that your local government continues to place or stall us from getting the answers on these important questions.

Be sure to like our page and share it to ensue people have access to what is happening in our town

10/09/2026

Tonight the all GOP town council and the town treasurer refused to answer questions on the on-going scandal related to the Elderly Tax freeze and two council members (President Collins and McCormick) who are on it who do not qualify under the Ordinance as well as 50 other people who were placed on it in "Error" according to the town Treasurer Przybyla.

Here are the questions that they refused to answer:

What does the "Elderly Freeze" Pause mean?

Is it the town's position that the 65 year old age, ten-year residency and ownership requirement is sill the required criteria to qualify for the tax freeze?

What is the "error" that the town treasurer made?

By what advice or authority did the town treasurer determine that the ownership and residency requirement was no longer valid? The advice of the solicitor, councilmembers, or was it a unilateral decision?

When were each of you (Councilmembers) notified that the ten-year requirement was not going to be recognized by the Treasurer's Office? (note: some council members did state they were never notified; most would not repsond)

On what date were the 50 people put on the 2026 freeze, and did they fill out the tax freeze application? If not, on what basis were they put on?

Were they notified that they were put on the freeze and how?

When the town council debated amending the ordinance on August 13, 2026 to remove the ten-year ownership/residency requirement, why didn't the Treasurer inform you and the public that he was not going to recognize that provision and place 50 people on the freeze? (Note: the effort to remove the requirement was tabled)

All reasonable questions which Collins, McCormick and Company refused to answer.

Councilwoman Yeaw did make a motion to add an agenda item to discuss the administration of the current ordinance and these issues but it failed because NOT ONE of her GOP fellow council members would second the motion! We thank her for her efforts.

So much for transparency and openness. She correctly pointed out that they were not discussing the amendment or changing the current tax freeze ordinance but the application of the current one and no ethics opinion would be necessary.

Yet, the GOP leadership said they would not respond to any questions because they each would be seeking an ethics advisory opinion.

We will be getting copies of their requests for an opinion and await to see if they ever answer these or other important questions. Until then, the pause continues yet McCormick and Collins are on the tax freeze when they do not qualify. As a result, all of us not on it pay more!

Stay tuned.

10/07/2026

We’ve been actively engaging on this issue to make taxpayers aware of Question 1, which will be on the election ballot this November. Continuing to bring light to the issue, here’s a recent op-ed submitted by Scituate resident, Jon Foster.
P.S. - If you’d like a Vote No on Question 1 sign, email: [email protected] or send us a dm with your address and we’ll drop one off!

On Nov. 3, Scituate residents will find Local Question #1 on the ballot. The act regards future motions made at Scituate’s annual Financial Town Meeting. This ballot question required Rhode Island state legislative approval, (S 3316, enacted 06/24/2026) as our town government does not have the abi...

10/07/2026

The Scituate Town Council is meeting this Thursday, October 8, 2026. The biggest issue facing our town is the elderly tax freeze and its so-called pause instituted by the Town Treasurer after it was revealed that Council President Collins and McCormick were put on the freeze when they do not qualify. Since this revelation, public records response show that at least 50 people were added to the freeze list contrary to the freeze ordinance. Residents are demanding answers, yet the matter is NOT on the agenda! This is outrageous and we urge all residents who care about our town to attend and ask questions and demand answers during the public comment period for "items Not on the agenda." See ITEM 6. What are they hiding from less than four weeks before an election. So much for ethical, transparent, government!

See you there!

https://clerkshq.com/scituate-ri

10/03/2026

What is Local Question 1? If approved, it will limit YOUR right to make motions or amendments to the Town Council’s proposed budget at the FTM. Proposed by Council President Collins, the measure would now require any voter who wants to add to or reduce any budget item by $10,000 or more to submit a petition signed by ten voters to the town treasurer by May 15 before the June FTM or the motion can not be heard. Why the change? Because parents organized in 2025, went to the FTM, and added monies to the school budget over the unanimous objection of the GOP town council and school
Committee members. So now these same individuals seek to change the 1915 law that governs Scituate (No Home
Rule Charter) to make it harder for anyone to just show up and make a motion at the FTM as has been done for more than a century.

We need to protect our rights and reject this change. Send us a DM or email to [email protected] to get a yard sign to help us spread the word to vote NO!