April 2, 2007

Legislator Ciotti Introduces Legislation to FREEZE Reassessment

At a press conference held on March 29, 2007, Nassau County Legislator John J. Ciotti joined fellow Legislators to introduce a new law to place a 5-year freeze on property tax reassessment. The residents of Nassau County have been suffering devastating increases in property taxes since the annual reassessment of the fair market value of all homes began in 2003. Many young people and senior residents are leaving Long Island due to the exorbitant costs of living here.

In response to this issue, the County Legislators are introducing a new law to bring some predictability back to our households. The Legislators are acting now because the 3 year court-ordered annual reassessment period is over. The County is no longer obligated by law to reassess your home annually. “As a homeowner in this community, I feel the impact of rising taxes, too. I voted against reassessment from the beginning and I will continue to forcefully advocate the wishes of our community to stop the unpredictable tax increases due to reassessment,” stated Legislator Ciotti.

“The current taxing scheme mocks state law caps on increases in assessed values and is so complex that few people can even understand their general tax levy. We’ve seen increases in property taxes of up to 300% for some of our residents. Our residents can’t take this anymore,” said Legislator Ciotti.

This law introduced Thursday calls for a 5 year freeze on increases in assessed value of all property in Nassau County. “Reassessing the value of Nassau residents’ homes every single year, especially during a real estate boom, creates an almost fatal shock to homeowners. New York State Tax law never intended this!” said Legislator Ciotti.

The new law requires that during the 5 year freeze, there will be no increase in the assessed value of any residential property in Nassau County. The current 2007 assessed value shall be frozen until 2013. During this period, homeowners’ assessed valuation cannot increase, but there will be 3 ways to decrease it - 1) The assessed value can decrease if the county’s ongoing appraisals reflect a decrease in fair market value of the property. 2) All owners may still challenge their assessed value through a tax certiorari proceeding. 3) If a property is sold at a price lower than the value placed on the property by the Assessor, the lower amount shall become the new assessed value (arms length transactions).

If the assessed value goes down because of any of these three ways, then the new lower value becomes the new cap for the remainder of the 5 year freeze. “This is a win, win, win situation for all homeowners in Nassau County. The result is that homeowners can gain a sense of confidence and predictability in their tax bills by eliminating yearly reassessments and unpredictable increases, and we can make household budgets easier to control and anticipate,” says Legislator Ciotti.

Under this new legislation, the only way that property taxes can be increased during the next 5 years would be if the County Executive or local taxing jurisdictions raise their tax rates. Increases in property taxes can no longer be attributable to reassessment.

The Legislators are working to stop runaway taxes, bring predictability to household budgets and stop our young people and seniors from leaving Long Island.