Four mayors from Great Neck villages urged their residents to file grievances with the Nassau County Department of Assessment in response to some homes being adversely impacted by the Nassau County tax reassessment.
The plea came from Thomaston Mayor Steve Weinberg, Kensington Mayor Susan Lopatkin, Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy and Kings Point Mayor Michael Kalnick on Monday.
Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender stood in solidarity with the other mayors.
“There were five villages on the peninsula that were adversely impacted by the Nassau County tax reassessment,” Weinberg said. “We are highly recommending that our residents if they feel their home was incorrectly assessed that they go file a grievance and correct this.”
Russell Gardens was the fifth village Weinberg mentioned but he said Mayor David Miller was unavailable to attend the Monday meeting.
Weinberg said the purpose of the meeting was to notify the public of what steps the officials had taken in regard to meeting with County Assessor David Moog and his department and to make residents aware of what potential changes to the reassessment they may see.
Efforts to reach a county representative for comment were unavailing.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran called for the reassessment of approximately 400,000 homes in 2018 after the county’s assessment roll had been frozen since 2008.
During that period, thousands of residents filed grievances on the value of their homes, winning reduced assessments and shifting the tax burden onto others who did not challenge their assessments.
According to figures presented by Weinberg, the sales data in Thomaston in 2019 did not compare to the assessments in multiple examples. He said the sales data is from 20 to 30 homes per year.
Of the 21 Thomaston homes that Weinberg said were incorrectly assessed in 2019, 15 were overassessed by as much as 36 percent, according to figures he provided. Of those 15 homes, the average overassessed amount was 15 percent.
The other officials echoed the issues but did not have data readily available at the meeting.
Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy said he was “infuriated by the department’s lack of transparency” when meeting with the group four times in the past two years.
“They told us, we have a neighborhood factor, and that’s how we calculate that,” Levy said. “We said to please tell us how this factor comes about. To this day, they mumble every kind of story and nobody can seem to put their finger on what it is.”
Levy said the neighborhood factor seemed like a “fictitious number” to him and the other officials.
“It felt like they were spitting on our faces because they were just leading us on and telling us they would look at it and talk to us,” Levy angrily said. “They led us by the nose, threw us to the curb and left us without any help.”
Lopatkin, who Weinberg said led this look into the assessment process, said the neighborhood factor calculation is available for residents to see.
“You may also be asking why representatives from other villages aren’t here,” Lopatkin said. “That’s because they don’t have the same problems we do. It underscores how unfair and inaccurate this assessment is.”
Curran’s plan to phase in Nassau County’s first tax reassessment in nearly a decade was approved by the County Legislature’s Rules Committee on Monday after almost a year of inaction.
County officials estimate that the median increase for homeowners will be $485 in the 2020–21 tax year.
In order to go into effect, the bill needs to pass the 19-member Legislature at the body’s next meeting on March 23.
The deadline for residents to file a grievance on their home’s assessed value was extended to April 2 at Curran’s request.
