There were winners and losers when Nassau County residential properties underwent a reassessment in 2018.
Values were frozen during the eight years of the Republican Ed Mangano administration. When Laura Curran, a Democrat, succeeded Mangano, updating the assessment was one of her signature acts.
To ease the transition for those who would see their property taxes rise beginning in 2020-21, Curran got the Democratically-controlled state legislature to authorize a program where the higher taxes would be phased in over five years. A similar legislation was introduced at the county level by Curran, but so far, the Republican-controlled county legislature has not passed this phase-in.
State Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Franklin Square) has proposed legislation to help those residents whose new assessments will lower their taxes—but will not be given an immediate drop.
“Equity” and “Fairness” were the words of the day when Ra held a press conference on Oct. 22 when he unveiled his new law to “fix” the “fixed” assessment system.
According to a press release, the legislation would “provides a personal income tax credit to homeowners who will see a tax decrease but, because of the phase-in, would not see their reduction for five years [and] paying more than their fair share for years longer than necessary.”
Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park), majority leader of the county legislature, stated, “[One] objection is that the state should not bear the cost for [tax relief ] of Nassau County homeowners. I want to point out that the county traditionally has sent much more money to Albany then we’ve gotten back.”
Estimates put the costs of Ra’s law to the state at $100 to $120 million.
“It’s really about fairness,” Ra said. “Because of this phase-in, different sets of taxpayers are pitted against each other. If you’re overassessed, the county tells you you’re going to have to wait five years until you get to where we think you should be.”
He added, “To my knowledge, this is the first proposal to help out these people. I hope that in a bipartisan fashion we can give thought to how we can help this portion of our tax base.”
Rose Marie Walker (R-Hicksville) said that the assessment process focused on those who did not grieve their taxes and those who have been overpaying their taxes.
“Now, after reassessment, those people who have been paying too much have to wait five years to see their payment be what it should be,” she said. “I hope the county executive does right by all of her constituents, not just a certain portion of the residents.”
Regarding Curran’s phase-in legislation, stalled in the legislature, Nicolello said,
“Eventually, we will consider [it] and…we will identify every way to make it better.”
Published comments by Curran’s spokesperson, Christine Geed, dismissed Ra’s proposal as “foolish” and “a stunt.” Geed did not reply for a request for comments.
