Nassau Residents To Grieve Taxes Again With Tax Roll Freeze: GOP

NEW HYDE PARK, NY — Republican Nassau lawmakers criticized County Executive Laura Curran’s administration for its handling of the reassessment and the tax grievance process, saying tens of thousands will have to grieve their taxes again this year under a pre-tax grievance settlement freeze.

Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello said homeowners will be forced to grieve their property’s assessed valuation again, following an executive mandate freezing the 2022-23 tax roll at pre-tax grievance settlement levels. Lawmakers have received complaints from residents who believed they were finished with the tax grievance process from last year, until receiving tentative assessment letters that do not reflect the changes they previously fought for in the grievance process, he said.

Curran announced a property tax assessment freeze for the 2022-2023 year back in December of last year.

‘This is fundamentally unfair,” said Nicolello, of New Hyde Park, at a news conference. “It has been fundamentally lacking in transparency. This is not the way government should operate. You are forcing residents to challenge their assessments year after year, after year, even after you agreed that your assessed value is too high.”

At least one homeowner in Levittown received and accepted a settlement offer for $448,000, and when his tentative assessment came recently, it showed that he would continue to be taxed at the pre-settlement level of $468,000, officials said.

In a statement from Curran’s press office, a county spokesperson said the “Republican majority continues to demonstrate that they don’t know how property assessment works — either that or they are deliberately confusing and exploiting homeowners.”

“The Assessment Review Commission is currently reviewing grievance filings for the 2021-2022 tentative assessment roll, which isn’t finalized until August. Despite the confusion that the Republicans are causing, homeowners can be assured that any reductions to property assessments granted by the commission on the 2021-2022 roll will be reflected in tax bills this fall,” the statement continued.

“The process has the same timeline every year, and state law mandates assessors may not make any changes unilaterally to the tentative roll once published — as the 2022-2023 tentative roll was this January. Homeowners are encouraged to file a grievance again by April 30, 2021, if they believe their paused tentative assessed property value is not accurate,” the statement concluded.

Wantagh Legis. Steven Rhoads, who is one of two legislators suing Curran’s administration to release the county’s projected property tax increases, said the lawsuit is seeking to force the administration to include the five-year phase in as it was so that residents can see the impact.

Calling the recent tentative assessments “erroneous letters,” Rhoads described a constituent from Bellmore whose offer was reduced down from $733,000 to $667,000.

Under the tax roll freeze, the assessed valuation of his home went back up and he will have to grieve the amount again this year, Rhoads said. He estimated that 250,000 people will likely grieve their taxes this year needlessly.

“This is inexcusable,” he said. “All of this information is in the control of this administration and the Department of Assessor and for them to continue at every stage in the process is either a reflection of extraordinary sloppiness or is a reflection of an intent to mislead the public. And the bottom line is we need to know which is the case.”

Legis. Rose Walker of Hicksville called the tax roll freeze truly “a shame.”

Plainview resident Robert Krause criticized Curran’s administration for the reassessment process, which he finds did not accurately represent many homeowners’ property values. Krauss, a senior citizen, said his taxes shot up by 20 percent.

“It gets to the point where enough is enough and people are starting to complain,” he said.