Mangano's home apparently underassessed

While County Executive Edward Mangano has made fixing Nassau's broken assessment system a top priority of his new administration, his own house appears to be underassessed.

Mangano appears to have followed the proper procedures, but the error underscores problems with Nassau's assessment system and calls attention to the fact that no one knows how many properties are underassessed because taxpayers are unlikely to report such errors.

Improvements made

Town building department records show Mangano has a half bathroom and central air-conditioning in his 3,690-square-foot Bethpage home, most recently valued at $682,200. These improvements, which add as much as $25,000 to its market value, are not reported on the county assessment Web sites. It's not clear how or why the discrepancy occurred. As a result of the error, Mangano saved roughly $500 in property taxes this year and perhaps thousands more since he built his house in 1994.

"This certainly underlines some of the problems with our assessment system," said Nassau Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick), who said the assessor should have picked up on the improvements. "Ultimately when someone's underassessed, everyone else pays for it."

Patrick Foye, executive director of a team set up by Mangano to study assessment, said even small mistakes add up: "For residential property owners, when the information about their own home is inaccurate it tends to undermine their trust and confidence in the system."

Mangano declined to be interviewed for this story. His spokesman, Michael Martino, said Mangano "believes like any other county resident that he's grossly overtaxed."

Mangano was billed $14,272 in property taxes this year. While the county executive may have saved money because of the county's mistake, Martino said, "Under the current system, he might wind up paying even less if he protested his assessment, which he has not done and refuses to do because he knows the system is broken, does not work and is not fair to taxpayers."

Nassau's assessment system generates more than 100,000 tax protests every year as well as nearly $100 million in refunds annually.

Fixing the Nassau system

As part of his efforts to fix the system, Mangano fired members of the Assessment Review Commission appointed by his Democratic predecessor, Thomas Suozzi, saying he needed his own commissioners.

John Lewis, a fired commissioner who is Hempstead Town's Democratic leader, said Mangano should have taken the initiative to correct the assessment. "He's got a great way to fix the assessment system," Lewis complained. "Don't report what your property's worth. That's the Mangano fix."

Nassau homeowners had a chance to correct mistakes in 2001 and 2002 when the company conducting Nassau's reassessment sent them property inventory cards that were to be returned with any changes.

However, former Nassau Assessor Harvey Levinson said he doesn't remember any homeowner ever reporting more improvements than those listed by the county. "When mistakes were made, like in Mangano's case, those people never came forward," he said Thursday.

Martino said Mangano does not recall getting the property information card.

Mangano purchased a 14,166-square-foot vacant lot in Bethpage in 1994 for $112,000, records show. He applied for a permit to build a two-story, three-bedroom house with a construction cost of $223,000.

Mangano's plumbing permit and building plans show two full baths on the second floor and a half-bath near the kitchen on the first floor. In June 1995, Oyster Bay Town issued the home's certificate of occupancy for a one-family dwelling with air-conditioning.

However, the county lists only two bathrooms and no central air-conditioning.

Ken Rossman, past president of the National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers on Long Island, who has done appraisals here for 35 years, said a half-bathroom can add up to $10,000 in value. Nassau's Assessment Review Commission Web site, which calculates the value of different features, puts the value of a half-bath at $15,000 to $20,000.

Rossman said central air-conditioning adds $8,000 to $10,000 in value. "It's a very desirable feature, especially for a high-end buyer," he said.

County Executive Edward Mangano's house

Lot size

14,166 square feet

Total Living Area

3,690

Bedrooms

3

Garage

Two-Car attached

2009-10 School and General Taxes

$14,272

Fair Market Value as of Jan. 2

$682,200

Source: Nassau County