Rhode Island House passes bill on Newport Cruise fees

NEWPORT, R.I. (WLNE) — The city of Newport is looking for a major boost to its tourism revenue, and Rhode Island’s house of representatives seems to be in favor.

That body passed a bill that would change how much revenue the city collects from cruise ships coming into port.

There was a quick passage for House bill 8027 this week, with 65 representatives voting in favor and 10 abstaining.

The bill would raise the fee per passenger when a cruise ship lands and departs.

Right now, cruise ships pay three dollars per passenger on landing and leaving.

If fully passed it would jump to 10 each way, the first change in nearly a decade.

“Well, a lot of it’s just the wear and tear on infrastructure. Eventually you hit that point where things need to be replaced and you wake up and say we’ve got to do something about this. We can’t kick the can anymore.” said Newport Mayor Xaykham Khamsyvoravong.

“This council has been really clear that we need to find new revenue streams that don’t put that burden on the backs of residents who are not part of the nearly 4 million visitors a year that Newport hosts. And they do create an enormous amount of wear and tear on our community. We love having them, but obviously it’s an expensive proposition” Khamsyvoravong continued.

In the last year, Discover Newport reported around 117 thousand passengers coming from cruise ships.

At twenty dollars per round trip, that would have brought nearly two and a half million dollars into the city.

“It’s called Perrotti park. That specific landing point needs a little over 20 million dollars in repairs. There’s an enormous amount of traffic that that little terminal and the accompanying restroom experience.” said Khamsyvoravong.

“Our thought is that if the cruise ship fee passes, we will have the revenues off that fee available to help us pay down the debt service directly related to this project being included, as part of that 98.5-million-dollar project.” Khamsyvoavong continued.

That project is a $98.5 million infrastructure bond for similar fixes, including replacing the harbormaster building at the park and fixing the seawall.

The bond will appear on the November ballot.

The bill to change the fee will now move to the senate, as city officials hope to gradually raise to this new fee over the next few years.