Tax increase likely coming for some, Polisena says

Mayor Joseph Polisena last week said some residents will likely see a property tax increase in the coming year as a result of a three-year statistical revaluation, although he believes the town’s shift to a two-tiered tax structure will soften the impact on homeowners.

“Is there going to be [a tax increase] this year? Absolutely, but once again that’s because of the statistical revaluation, where a third goes up, a third comes down and a third stays the same,” he said. “Plus, the ones that are going to go up, the blow is not going to be as hard because of the two-tier tax system. So I’m very happy.”

The two-tier tax system – which passed both chambers of the legislature and was signed by Gov. Gina Raimondo – puts Johnston in line with numerous other communities in the state. It allows for separate tax rates for residential and commercial/industrial properties, which the mayor has said would ease the burden on homeowners. The town has not had a tax rate increase in the past three years.

Polisena said he will make his full budget presentation this coming Monday, July 1, at the Johnston Municipal Court.

“Our levy grows by under 1 percent, maybe .72 percent,” he said. “Residential values went up, up to 26 percent. Business and industrial went up 5 percent, so we had an unfair tax system where I think businesses and industrial were paying the same rate. So we kind of fixed that, and it’s well deserving to the taxpayers.”

When pressed for specifics in terms of tax rates or the affect of the revaluation on homeowners’ bills, Polisena said he doesn’t know “at this point in time.”

“It depends on what your house is worth,” he said. “We’re working on the budget now as we speak, so I’ll have an idea of what a house worth X amount of dollars will go up. Some are not going to go up at all.”

Polisena said the town budget is “coming along,” and he reiterated that he waits until the state budget has passed to finalize his figures. The state budget passed the House of Representatives last week, but awaits approval in the Senate and the governor’s signature.

Overall, Polisena said he is pleased with the state budget numbers. He praised the work of House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello, even going so far as to say, “Thank God for Speaker Mattiello.”

“We’re ecstatic about the elimination of the car tax, because I know they wanted to kind of play with those numbers and they’re not,” he said. “The speaker kept his word, so I’m very, very happy that the budget is the way it is.”

As for progress on the town side, Polisena said Finance Director Joseph Chiodo is working to check that his figures are correct. The school department will receive level funding, and there will be more money funneled into the town’s other post-employment benefits, or OPEB, obligations.

However, Polisena also noted that the town lost approximately $500,000 in funding from the state for which he will have to compensate.

“We want to make sure we don't get into a situation where we’re buried, and we want to make sure that we obviously pass a prudent budget,” he said. “So I feel that the budget’s prudent. We’re working on it. Hopefully by the end of next week we should be in good shape knowing what’s going to happen.”

Polisena added that he purchased two new rescues for the town at no taxpayer cost. He said that, like other fire departments, Johnston bills insurance companies and allocates the money into its general fund. The mayor said that he places a portion of the funds into a separate account – “a restricted receipts account, if you will” – and used some of it to purchase the rescues.

“State-of-the-art equipment, which we have, because to me – we have a saying in EMS, ‘Minutes mean a lifetime,’” Polisena said. “They’ve got the best equipment. We’ve got the best emergency medical technicians in the state. Our men and women do a fabulous job but they need equipment. So we bought the best of everything, and they’ve kind of got a little advantage with me because I was there.”

Polisena said he believes residents will be satisfied with the budget.

“We feel very confident that people are going to be very happy. We haven’t had a tax increase in three years, too. People have no complaints that, ‘Gee, the taxes keep going up.’ Three years, we haven’t had a tax increase.”