Time for Nassau to give up assessment biz

Nassau County ought to get out of the property assessment business. It's one of the surest ways to help its finances and keep county expenses in check.

The county ought to consider giving the job of assessing back to Nassau's three towns -- along with the tax money commercial and residential property owners pay into a system that residents lost faith in years ago.

Most of New York State operates that way. And town governments, which are closer to residents than the county, are apt to do a better job at accurately comparing the value of one local property to another.

How much of a burden does the assessment system place on the county? Consider this:

In 2009, the largest expenditure categories in Suffolk County were public safety, social services and employee benefits, according to the Long Island Association's recently released 2011 Annual Business Factbook.

During the same period, Nassau's biggest expenditure categories were public safety and debt service. And debt service accounted for almost 42 percent of all county spending, according to the report.

That's an astonishing percentage -- and much of it can be attributed to the cost, plus interest, of settling successful property tax challenges in Nassau.

During a news conference Monday, county Executive Edward Mangano touted a settlement program for residential properties that he said saved the county millions of dollars.

Mangano said that the settlement program, along with other changes he's made in assessment since taking office, have made the system better.

But the audit released Monday by county Comptroller George Maragos detailed still other changes that likely have made it worse.

The Maragos audit calls into question a Mangano administration strategy of artificially lowering property values as a way of reducing Nassau's liability for successful property assessment challenges.

The idea of limiting the county's tax-refund liability makes sense. Last year, for example, Mangano pushed through a reform to make school districts, towns and villages pay their share of property tax refunds for the first time since the 1940s.

But a strategy of reducing assessment values as a way to save money by making it almost impossible to win appeals likely will have the consequence of damaging the integrity of the assessment rolls.

Which would further erode the public's already waning trust in the system.

According to the Maragos audit, artificially low assessments would shift the tax burden.

How? Property owners who appeal likely would be able to win lower assessments as part of the county's settlement program. Property owners who didn't appeal would be left to pick up the difference in reduced assessments.

This is -- despite the county's response to Maragos' findings -- not fair. For one, it effectively shifts the responsibility for ensuring equitable assessments from the county to individual property owners.

The bottom line: Those who file for appeals and succeed win. Those who hang back and do nothing lose.

Which is why if Nassau wants to save money, it needs to go even further on assessments. Give it back to the towns.

They probably don't want it. But it's a pretty safe bet that, in time, frustrated property owners will.