TIVERTON — In four of the five years he lived in Westchester County in New York, David Nelson saw his property taxes more than double, from $10,000 to $22,000 a year.

“That’s why I moved here, only to see the same thing happening here,” said Nelson, who estimated his property taxes have jumped 14 percent, from about $5,900 to about $6,800, since he moved to Tiverton four years ago.

In the wake of last May’s Financial Town Meeting, Nelson said, he and others who are “mad as heck” about escalating tax bills have formed Tiverton Citizens for Change, a political action committee that plans to endorse candidates this month for the November election.

With Nelson recently named president, and DeEtta Moran as treasurer, Tiverton Citizens for Change plans to hold its first public meeting on Sept. 15, in an effort to increase membership. Political endorsements are to be made later in the month, Nelson said.

The group appeals to those who were dissatisfied with the results of the two-part Financial Town Meeting last May, which raised the tax rate about 9 percent, with the backing of the Town Council, the School Committee, and the chairman of the Budget Committee.

Nelson said, “For me and for many, it’s a conundrum that suggests bewilderment.

“Why is my property value dropping and taxes going up at the same time?” he asked.

“At the same time, I’m not getting more for my money,” he said.

Nelson said he would feel taxpayers are getting their money’s worth if Rhode Island had top-ranked schools.

But many sources of data do not put Rhode Island schools in the top ten in the nation, he said.

Elected officials, most prominently Town Council President Louise Durfee and Budget Committee Chairman Christopher Cotta, argued vigorously against a $2-million reduction in spending that was embraced by voters during the first half of the Financial Town Meeting. Almost all that cut was later restored.

Tiverton Citizens for Change has submitted a questionnaire to Town Council candidates which revisits the Financial Town Meeting and asks them how they would vote next year if the same issues arose.

For example, would they exceed the state-imposed ceiling on new tax money to pay for school construction bonds or to make up decreases in non-tax revenue?

Last May, the state ruled that debt service and projected revenue shortfalls justified an increase in the tax rate of as much as 11 percent

Durfee, Cotta, and other officials warned that undercutting the recommended increase would plunge the town into fiscal chaos, forcing it to choose between debt service and essential services such as fire or police protection.

Nelson said in a statement, “No one is suggesting carte-blanche elimination of town functions and schools, but an increasing number of citizens worry that those in charge are not concerned about the growing tax burden created by this flurry of excessive spending.”

Nelson said the underlying problem highlighted at the Financial Town Meeting was a deficiency in the management of the town.

He said the current fiscal problems date back to 2004, when the council, School Committee and Budget Committee failed to get across to the townspeople the financial impact of a $30-million school reconstruction bond that is hitting taxpayers’ wallets at full force for the first time in the current budget.

Town and school officials have said they did their best to publicize the 2004 bond issue, which called for refurbishing neighborhood elementary schools rather than consolidation into one building, an idea that had been rejected.

Nelson, meanwhile, criticized the past practice of using withdrawals from the general fund to offset increases in the tax rate, essentially exhausting the town’s reserves while allowing expenditures to grow without attracting much attention.

In the current budget, the town had to add $900,000 to the overall property tax bill to compensate for no longer being able to take money from the general fund.

Officials blamed the fiscal woes of Tiverton and many other municipalities in Rhode Island on the ripple effects of an overall poor economy, as well as property tax relief legislation that didn’t deliver on legislators’ promise to couple tax limits with a predictable formula for increasing state aid to education.

Nelson said, “Tiverton taxpayer voters need to take action — in the voting booth this November — to change the town’s financial trajectory.”

The group has adopted a mission statement that “offers integrity, transparency, and responsiveness with access to decision makers and the deliberative process,” according to its Web site, http://www.tivertoncc.com

Nelson said “town government must have the fortitude to make difficult fiscal decisions and the discipline to implement the changes that result.”

The group’s meeting Sept. 15 begins at 7:30 p.m. at the VFW hall at 17 Shove St., Nelson said.

gmacris@projo.com