Levinson Establishes Ongoing Dialogue

(Mineola, NY) Assessor Harvey Levinson’s inaugural pledge to establish an ongoing dialogue with the Nassau Village Officials Association, school boards, community groups, the media, business community, and homeowners in order to improve Nassau County’s property assessment system has become a reality.

In his first two months as Chairman of the Board of Assessors, Mr. Levinson has appeared at dozens of community meetings throughout Nassau County and conferred with a number of government and school officials at his office.

“As I begin the difficult task of improving our County’s property assessment system, I do so with the knowledge that I have assembled an experienced professional team who is working tirelessly with our community, business and government officials on a daily basis,” stated Assessor Levinson.

One of the major criticisms voiced by a number of critics of the previous administration’s supervision of the court-ordered reassessment project was that communication deficiencies between the Department of Assessment, Assessment Review Commission (ARC) and the County’s reassessment contractor created delays in the sharing of information needed to formulate defensible property values. Assessor Levinson went on to cite examples of communication lapses whereby the ARC would lower the assessed value of a property during the grievance period only to see the same value increased by the reassessment contractor the following year. He went on to note that the exchange of information between assessing entities as to why values on properties were increased or decreased was virtually nonexistent.

To overcome these communication lapses, Assessor Levinson initiated a bi-weekly meeting with representatives from the New York State Office of Real Property Services (ORPS), ARC, Cole-Layer-Trumble Company (CLT), and Department of Assessment staff with the intent of exchanging ideas and sharing vital assessment information.

In addition, Assessor Levinson announced that he has established an ongoing dialogue with a sub-committee representing the Superintendents and Business Agents of the public school districts throughout Nassau County to help them to better understand how the shifts in property values will impact their district’s tax levies based on budgetary needs. Sub-committee members included: Dr. William Johnson, Rockville Centre; Sheldon Dumain, Bellmore; Robert Bartels, Rockville Centre; and, Richard Daddio, East Williston.

“By working together, I am confident that we will be able to change Nassau County’s assessment system for the better,” concluded Assessor Levinson.