Nassau Just ‘Fixed’ Its Property Tax Problem

Blog August 9, 2019 By Admin
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Nassau’s County Executive claims that the decades long property tax issue has been fixed. By raising taxes on almost half of the population.

In a letter from Laura Curran published by the Long Island Press, the Nassau County Executive claims to have finally remedied the unfair tax system. That ‘fix’ comes in hiking up the tax bills of many, many locals.

Stopping Rebates, By Charging More

Curren blames her predecessors for losing out on $7B in taxable property value last year alone, and being lumbered with a backlog of half a billion dollars owed in settlements to those who had successfully grieved their taxes. In fact, she admits that appeals are almost guaranteed to succeed, due to being unfairly over inflated.

Yet, instead of lowering bills and assessments to correct this and reduce the number of Nassau homeowners who have to appeal every year and get reimbursed, the ingenious plan has been to raise taxes even further. Probably not the fix anyone was hoping for.

Taxpayer Rights

Opponents of this crushing new blow to local businesses and homeowners on Long Island have now grouped together to push for a Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

To help the hundreds of thousands of property owners who now face paying thousands of dollars more this year and every year, the Bill of Rights aims to bring more clarity and transparency to how property tax assessments are being calculated, as well as to how much bills should really be.

Curran says you still have the right to appeal, she just hopes you don’t use it.

Affordability Crisis

In our last post we reported on how numerous financial firms are fleeing the Empire State for friendlier destinations with lower taxes.

New numbers from ATTOM Data Solutions show that nationally 74% of workers can no longer afford a median priced home. That gets far worse in the Northeast, which has become the epicenter of the new crisis. Here even fewer are likely to be able to afford a home, especially thanks to all the taxes.

It would be nice if there were some long term thinking put into action to preserve Long Island, its businesses, economy and appeal as a community to live in. Unfortunately, for now, the pressure is on, and for many to hold on it means getting proactive about challenging those annual property tax bills to avoid being forced out.