Elaine Phillips begins audit of Nassau reassessment

Nassau Comptroller Elaine Phillips said she has begun auditing the county Department of Assessment's handling of former Nassau County Executive Laura Curran's countywide reassessment, which took effect in the 2020-21 school tax year.

Independent experts have said property values assigned during the Curran administration met assessment industry standards.

But Republican county legislators have cited reassessment errors, including publication of incorrect values on tentative tax rolls. The county later corrected the values.

Phillips, a Republican who took office Jan. 1, said she will review the 2020-21 tax year, issue findings and follow-up with reviews of successive assessment rolls.

"People are frustrated, people are confused, people are angry — what is the root cause?" Phillips, a former state senator and Flower Hill Village mayor, told Newsday.

"The answer is people are paying, in their perception, too high of taxes," Phillips said. "So, the root of that comes down to the assessed value, and are those assessed values industry-standard correct?"

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, campaigned largely on his opposition to Curran's reassessment.

Blakeman, who on Tuesday attended a news conference in Mineola at which Phillips announced her audit, had promised voters that, if elected, he would ask Phillips to conduct a reassessment audit.

"We know that reassessment is broken," Blakeman said at the news conference. "This audit is essential to me as the county executive, and to my colleagues on the legislature, as we go forward and we have to come up with the solution for the reassessment."

After taking office in 2018, the Curran administration reassessed the county's more than 385,000 residential properties.

Republican County Executive Edward Mangano, Curran's predecessor, had frozen the assessment roll in 2011.

The freeze lasted for eight years, and during the period many homes became significantly undervalued.

A Mangano policy of offering automatic assessment reductions to many taxpayers caused a shift in the tax burden — from filers who appealed their property values and won reductions, onto those who did not file challenges.

Democratic and Republican county legislators voted in 2018 to allow Curran's reassessment to move forward.

County data published in December 2020 showed that 65% of homeowners received school tax increases in 2020-21, the first year of reassessment, while 35% got reductions.

Legis. Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport), the minority leader, told Newsday on Tuesday that Phillips "should be able to take a look at what the previous administration did."

But Abrahams stressed that Curran had, "tackled probably the most critical issue that was facing Nassau County residents."

He continued: "I think all Nassau County residents realized the tax system that was in place before she got there was completely unfair. She tackled it the best way she could. Obviously, there were some errors and mistakes along the way."

Phillips said she and her team will be fair and thorough in the Assessment Department audit.

"We have to at least attempt to get the property owners of Nassau County more confident in this assessed roll," Phillips said.

"I've heard people say this — they're more confident in what the tax grievance companies are saying to them, than in Nassau County, and that has got to change," she said.

Also Tuesday, Nassau County Legis. Steve Rhoads (R-Bellmore), a frequent critic of Curran's reassessment, announced Tuesday he will chair a new legislative assessment committee, along with vice chairman Legis. John Ferretti Jr. (R-Levittown), another critic of Curran's program.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.