Nassau County Property Tax System Broken: Why Your Neighbors Pay Less Than You

Blog January 11, 2013 By Admin
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Long Island residents are fuming as some pick up huge hikes as others see property tax bills diving…

 

Even the Nassau County school board president, Mark Kamberg says “The county assessment system is broken”, as the tax burden is unevenly distributed among local homeowners, compounding the effects of the recent financial crises and the uncertainty over finances and the looming fiscal cliff.

 

So where is it all going wrong, why are some being punished with high property tax bills and others being offered sweet heart deals?

 

New Yorkers have long carried the weight of hefty property taxes. In fact one CNN Money report shows NY and NJ are home to all of the nation’s top 10 counties with the highest property taxes.

 

Still, that doesn’t make it feel any better to receive a huge bill in the mail, especially as some residents in other states like PA are seeing taxes being driven down by as much as 5.9%.

 

Some might suggest corruption is an issue. This was certainly a big part of the problem in L.A. where the County’s Assessor has been jailed for 2 months after being accused of taking almost $200,000 in bribes to adjust property tax bills. Ironically, while still behind bars the Assessor has still been collecting his salary and even received a pay raise to $197,000 a year.

 

However, here in Long Island the disparity in property tax rates, a partial factor in some seeing high tax bills has been quite simply the difference in those standing up for their rights and those laying down and covering everyone else’ bills.

 

According to Long Island Newsday school tax rates have been pushed through the roof in Nassau County with some seeing rates “jump 10 times higher than projected”, even after a cap was supposedly put into place earlier this year.

 

The New York Post, quoting Nassau Legislator Wayne Wink (whose own bill went up 13%), says the County has been offering “good deals” to those who have complained about their unfair tax bills and have filed grievances. However, this has just effectively dumped all of those extra dollars onto the bills of those who have complained or taken advantage of representation to get their property tax bills lowered.

 

Which side of the scale do you want to be on?

 

There is help and relief from professional NY Property Tax Adjusters for those who want it, ,you just have to ask…