Media Contact: Randolph Yunker - (516) 571-2490

Dear Editor:

Property taxes throughout Nassau County are out-of-control.

While the Department of Assessment does not set municipal, school district or special district operating budgets or tax rates, mail out tax bills, or collect taxes, property assessments that reflect the escalating real estate market are often blamed for tax hikes to divert taxpayer frustration and scrutiny from increasing budgets.

Since assuming office as the Chairman of the Board of Assessors in January of 2004, I have never shied away from issues that I thought demanded the attention of elected officials at all levels of government – whether that issue was finding new ways to combat the growth of illegal and unsafe multi-family houses throughout the County, advocating the elimination of sanitation taxing districts, proposing that a statewide committee be convened to study my suggestion that the residential school property tax be eradicated and replaced with a modest income tax, finding ways to share the assessed commercial value within a town to help ease the fire district property tax burden, or lobbying the State legislature for a phase-in of assessment increases and elimination of fractional levels of assessments.

It’s easy for naysayers to sit in criticism and argue for the continuation of the status quo. I can’t. I hear the cries of residents every day who can no longer afford to live in Nassau County because of the high property taxes.

Many have called me an “activist assessor” because I have focused on issues that have never been addressed by an assessor. Activism for the sake of the common good, for our communities’ quality of life, and for our children’s future is not a negative.

With the knowledge that my legislative initiative calling for a phase-in of assessment increases was left to die in a State Senate Committee, despite its overwhelming support by both parties in the Assembly, I introduced a resolution at the June 7 meeting of the Board of Assessors calling for the restoration of a six percent cap on assessment increases for residential properties for the 2007-08 tax year.

By passing this resolution, the Board of Assessors is complying with Article 18 of the New York State Real Property Tax Law that was written by Senator Kemp Hannon (R – Garden City) and signed into law in 1982, which mandates a six percent cap for Nassau homeowners. This is the law.

Unfortunately, when the previous administration negotiated and agreed to the terms of the New York State Supreme Court Order in March of 2000, no-one advocated that assessment increases be phased-in when Nassau County moved from its archaic construction-cost assessment system to one that measures the fair market value of a home. What is often overlooked is the fact that the lack of a phase-in resulted in tremendous shifts in school property tax increases in middle class communities. In fact, to “get around” the six percent cap provisions or phase-in, the previous administration – with the approval of New York State Supreme Court – set a level of assessment at fractional levels (one, one-half, and one-quarter percent of full market value) for the ensuing rolls covered under the Court Order.

Until the Senate agrees to cooperate with its colleagues in the Assembly and passes the initiatives I proposed in 2004, I have no option but to comply with existing State law.

Sincerely,

HARVEY B. LEVINSON
Chairman, Board of Assessors