REPUBLICAN MAJORITY DEMANDS EXTENSION OF DEADLINE TO FILE PROPERTY TAX GRIEVANCES
Nassau County Legislator James Kennedy and members of the Legislature’s Majority Caucus filed a resolution demanding that the Assessment Review Commission extend the deadline to file an application for a correction of assessment from March 1, 2019, to April 30, 2019.
The Majority Legislators stated that the rollout of the County Executive’s Reassessment Plan has been fraught with so many errors. It is not fair to expect 400,000 residential homeowners to process this information, address the errors, and submit meaningful challenges by the current deadline of March 1, 2019.
Some of the errors made in rolling out the County Executive’s Reassessment Plan:
- o The County Executive broke her promise to abide by NYS law setting a 6% cap on assessment increases by changing the rate of assessment ratio to .01%.
- o The County Executive and Assessor mailed out tax notices which purposefully left out the impact of the ratio change on property tax bills.
- o The County Executive missed the deadline imposed by the legislature by a unanimous vote to send revised Tax Impact Notices to residents, and to date, many still have not received their notice.
- o The Assessment Department changed 60,000 tax notices posted online because incorrect values were used to estimate tax impacts.
- o 20,000 notices had to be corrected because the projected increases in assessments were too high.
- o Taxpayer feedback forced the Assessor to re-value 40,000 properties due to erroneous assumptions in the reassessment model.
- o An email from the County Executive to residents about assessment contained web links that did not work.
- o All notices mailed contained an incorrect date for when new home values will be final.
- o The County Executive has repeatedly announced a 5-year phase-in of increases and decreases that requires state legislation that does not exist.
In addition, the County Executive announced on January 1st, that another 85,000 property values have been reduced based on taxpayer feedback. This adds more confusion to residents who now have to wonder if their assessments will increase based on the 85,000 reductions.
“Nassau County homeowners have been abused by the assessment process. This whole process has created anger and confusion. Residents who have incorrect assessments will need to grieve and extending the deadline is the only fair thing to do” stated Legislator Kennedy.
Recent reports estimate that MORE THAN half of Nassau homeowners will see a tax increase as a result of this Reassessment, and 115,000 of them will see an increase of 15% - 25% or more.
An additional 60 days will allow residents to review all notices available, meet with Assessment, seek advice or appraisals as needed, and file a challenge if deemed appropriate.
The Majority Legislators also reiterated their demand that the County Executive follow through with her promise to hold public meetings throughout the county to discuss this Reassessment.
Residents can file a grievance on their own. If you have any questions about the grievance process please visit the Assessment Review Commission website at https://www.nassaucountyny.gov/1510/Assessment-Review-Commission.