Laura Curran: Nassau assessment reductions at record low

Nassau County has granted 61,110 reductions on home values for the 2020-21 assessment roll, a dramatic drop from about 174,000 reductions it granted a year ago, county officials said.

The record decrease in the number of assessment reductions reflected County Executive Laura Curran's decision in 2018 to end an eight-year freeze on assessments instituted by former County Executive Edward Mangano in 2011.

Also, the county's Assessment Review Commission ended a mass settlement program that for years led to automatic reductions for many filers.

Curran ordered a countywide reassessment of Nassau's 385,000 residential properties in 2018, saying the county needed to end the freeze and ensure the accuracy of the tax rolls.

In a statement, Curran, a Democrat, said homeowners “deserve assurance that the amounts they are paying are based on fair property assessments. With the significant decrease in grievance reductions after the reassessment, we now have even more data that shows we are on the right path.”

Majority Republicans in the county Legislature expressed concern that the large number of denials would result in thousands of homeowners filing appeals in small claims court and with the County Attorney's Office.

“Pointing to the reduced number of grievance settlements as proof of the accuracy of settlements is deliberately misleading," said Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park).

"There remain more than 150,000 grievances of which most homeowners will be filing petitions to continue to fight to pay their fair share," Nicolello said. "If even half of these appeals are successful, the county will have to pay tens of millions of dollars in refunds.”

Of the 236,372 tax challenges filed by homeowners for the upcoming 2020-21 tax year, the county granted reductions to only 61,110 properties. The 2020-21 assessment roll was finalized April 1.

The assessment affects school taxes due this October and general property taxes due in January 2021.

The number of reductions granted by the county while the assessment roll was frozen rose from 93,037 during the 2012-13 tax year to 174,281 in the 2019-20 tax year, when the county received 218,689 residential grievances.

Robin Laveman, chairwoman of the county Assessment Review Commission, said the low number of settlements for the 2020-21 tax year reflected the fact that "we didn’t see that reductions were warranted … We felt that the majority of assessments were accurate.”

But Nicolello said Curran saying the low number of assessment reductions reflected the accuracy of the settlements was “akin to President George W. Bush standing on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003 with a 'Mission Accomplished' banner, announcing the end of major combat missions in Iraq."

Nicolello continued: "The mission of reforming the assessment system is far from accomplished. We believe assessed values continue to be deeply flawed and the county has potential exposure of tens of millions of dollars at the same time we will facing a fiscal crisis due to the COVID-19 outbreak."

In a statement, Curran spokesman Michael Fricchione suggested Nicolello was "confused by his own record over the last decade when millions in settlements and refunds helped bankrupt this county and created the most unjust assessment system in the state."

Fricchione said Nicolello, "should focus more of his time and energy helping residents affected by the coronavirus and less time taking political pot shots while the County Executive is managing a crisis.

Asked about the potential for court-ordered refunds, Fricchione said, “Property assessments were already reviewed by ARC which determined they are accurate."

Tax challenge firms filed the bulk of the claims for the new tax year, submitting 192,762 challenges, compared with 43,610 submitted by homeowners representing themselves.

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.