Johnston continues to hold off mailing residents this year’s car tax bills as the state’s budget impasse continues.

“We still have everything on hold, I’m hoping these people get together because, as I said before the more I look at it an do some more research, it will be a paper nightmare if I send out the old bill an we have to reimburse people,” said Mayor Joseph Polisena. “It will be a worse nightmare if I send out the discounted bill and it doesn’t pass, we’ll be in a deficit.

The issue is the $9.2 billion state budget and the fact that it has still not passed. The hang-up with the state budget, which could get resolved next week should the Senate reconvene and approve the budget as sent over by the House, is legislation that would start the phase-out of municipal car taxes over the next six years. Larry Berman, spokesman for House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, said Monday there are no new developments on the budget standoff, although the Speaker and President of the Senate Dominick Ruggerio plan to meet.

“Assuming the Senate comes back into session soon to reconsider and pass the House budget, as the president has publicly stated, the Speaker has indicated a willingness to come back in September and complete unfinished legislative business from the session,” Berman said.

Under the bill, the state would reimburse taxes municipalities would have otherwise collected for a total annual commitment of $221 million by the time the program is fully implemented. While the legislation has several triggers to reduce motor vehicle taxes, in its first year only two would apply to Johnston taxpayers. It would immediately take vehicles that are 15 years old or older off the tax rolls and reduce the valuations of others still on the rolls by 5 percent. The tax rate of $41.46 per $1,000 of valuation would remain unchanged until later years in the program, when it would eventually disappear completely

“I’m waiting for these people at the State House. I’m waiting for Senator [Frank] Lombardo the town senator to basically go to his leadership and say pass the budget,” said Polisena. “They’re creating a huge hardship for people, and it’s not going to be good.

The architect of the plan, Mattiello, vowed to implement the first phase of the program this year, even though municipalities were faced with finalizing their budgets and mailing tax bills in June for the first quarterly payment on July 15. Most cities and towns, Johnston being one of them, went ahead and billed for property and tangible taxes with the expectation the House budget, as has been the tradition, would be approved unchanged by the Senate. Municipalities would then send out the car taxes with the relief Mattiello promised.

But on the final night of the session, even though the Senate Finance Committee approved the House budget, when it reached the Senate floor for a vote, senators approved an amendment to the car tax relief bill that would sideline the program if the state lacked the funding to finance it. Adhering to his promise to end the custom of night-long closing sessions where legislation gets pushed through with scant review, Mattiello adjourned the House and sent representatives home by 10 p.m., leaving the state budget in limbo.

When it looked like neither side would budge – Mattiello wasn’t going to reconvene the House to vote on the Senate version of the budget and Ruggerio wasn’t going to call back the Senate to pass the House budget – Mayor Polisena decided to postpone mailing out the motor vehicle bills.

“I urge Johnston residents to call Senator Lombardo and tell him to get the budget to the governor’s office because he represents Johnston,” said the mayor.

Polisena also said he’s received several complaints from residents, but he said he feels “much more optimistic now” then he did three weeks ago that the impasse can be broken. He foresees the tax bills now being sent sometime in August. The mayor reiterated that taxpayers would be given a window to pay car taxes once the bills have been mailed.

“We’re going to give people extra time to pay their car tax bill only, not property tax bills or tangible tax bills. The car tax bill only, they’ll have extended time until probably October,” said Polisena.