Mineola, N.Y. - Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi, joined by Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman, Nassau County Assessor Harvey Levinson, and the Chairman of the Assessment Review Commission Glenn Borin, today announced the largest payout of property tax refunds since the beginning of the assessment crisis, as well as the largest single-year decrease in the backlog of property tax refunds that began accumulating under prior administrations.  These achievements put the county half-way towards its 2005 year-end backlog target while signaling that the final piece of the County Executive’s first multi-year plan, which was presented in 2002 to address the county’s fiscal crisis, is nearly in place.  These results have been reviewed by both the County Comptroller and the County’s independent auditor, Deloitte and Touche. 

“I’m proud to say we have gotten our arms around the enormous problem created by the backlog of property tax refunds that began more than a decade ago and I commend all the county departments that worked together to achieve this remarkable task,” said the County Executive.  “Our priority for the past three years has been to bring this county back to fiscal stability and to restore responsible fiscal management.  Tackling the county’s long-standing property tax refund problem has required creative thinking, complex strategies, and inter-departmental cooperation.  Today’s news is a clear indication that one of the last obstacles to the county’s full fiscal recovery has nearly been overcome.”

In making this announcement, the County Executive underscored the county’s commitment to making the smooth transition to “pay as you go” financing of property tax refunds beginning with the 2006 budget as required under the NIFA Act.  Doing so will end the destructive practice of borrowing to pay property tax refunds while significantly reducing the County’s debt burden and annual debt service payments in the future. 

“Borrowing to pay real estate tax refunds helped lead to Nassau County’s fiscal crisis in the 1990s,” Comptroller Weitzman said.  “Under Tom Suozzi’s conservative fiscal policy and NIFA’s strict fiscal discipline, the county has worked hard to reduce that liability.”

He added, “Nassau needed to reduce the refund backlog so that it would be prepared to fund real estate tax refunds on a ‘pay as you go’ basis beginning in 2006, as required by NIFA.  In my report of May 2004, I estimated the county would need to reduce the total claims backlog to less than $231 million by December 31, 2005 in order to achieve the goals set forth in the county’s financial plan.  We can now report that the county is headed in the right direction, having reduced its 2004 year-end liability to $310 million.  Although much work needs to be done before the end of the year, the county is now well poised to meet this goal and to reduce tax refunds to a sustainable level.”

“I applaud the administration’s demonstrable progress in reducing the backlog of property tax refunds, a backlog which had been growing for a decade,” said Harvey Levinson, Chairman of the Board of Assessors.  “Going forward, the Department of Assessment is committed to making the County’s property tax roll more and more accurate.  When assessments are accurate, the County will have to pay fewer property tax refunds, and the interests of property owners will be better protected. I look forward to the time, in the very near future, when Nassau joins other governments in the rest of the State and property tax refunds are no longer an issue.” 

The County paid out $185.1 million in refunds to property owners in 2004, representing the largest amount of refund payments made by the County in a single fiscal year since the assessment crisis began a decade ago.  Additionally, the County’s Assessment Review Commission has made over $177 million in unilateral corrections to the County’s property tax rolls, thereby avoiding considerable refund payments for which the County, in the past, would have issued debt to finance.  With increasingly accurate assessment rolls, the unilateral roll corrections generated by the Assessment Review Commission, and the record level of refund payments made in 2004, Nassau was able to reduce the liability associated with its accumulated backlog of property tax refunds by $77 million, the largest ever single-year reduction in the County’s refund backlog.  The County must reduce its remaining backlog of tax refunds by an additional $79 million in 2005 in order to reach a level that will facilitate a smooth transition to pay-as-you-go financing of property tax refunds as part of the 2006 budget.