Nassau County residents can start appealing 2026-27 property taxes

Nassau homeowners looking to lower their property tax bills are eligible to appeal the county's assessed value after the release of the 2026-27 tentative property tax rolls on Thursday.

The deadline to file an appeal with the Assessment Review Commission is March 3, according to the agency's website. The Nassau County Legislature approved the tax rolls in a vote last month. Democrats criticized the administration of County Executive Bruce Blakeman for using the same values from the year before, effectively freezing them for a fifth straight year. 

Freezing or failing to update the property tax rolls from year to year creates inaccuracies within the system, making it more difficult for the county to defend the assessed values to homeowners who challenge them, experts say.

Experts also say letting too many years pass without updating the assessed values, which is used to calculate tax bills, impacts the entire system, particularly when the market value of the homes continue to rise, creating inequities for those who do not successfully grieve or grieve at all.

Chris Boyle, spokesman for Blakeman, did not explicitly say whether the rolls were frozen but that they were "fixed." He noted that Blakeman has "revamped the assessment office resulting in far less errors than the previous administration. The implementation of expedited resolution of grievances has resulted in millions of dollars in savings for taxpayers."

Nassau homeowners pay among the highest property taxes in the nation with well-publicized reports and political campaigns designed around reforming the system.

A 2017 Newsday investigation showed $1.7 billion in taxes was shifted from homeowners who won tax appeals to those who did not. This came after former Republican County Executive Edward Mangano froze the tax rolls in 2011 while granting thousands of reductions to those who challenged the assessed value of their properties.

Jeffrey Gold, an attorney based in Bellmore who created a Facebook group for homeowners looking to challenge their home's assessed values, said the longer the rolls remain frozen, the more inaccurate they become. This makes it more difficult for the county to defend its own calculations, he said.

"The assessed rolls need to be scrapped and the county needs to do another reassessment, which then updates every year," Gold said. 

Former County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat, in 2018 unfroze Nassau's tax rolls and began a controversial reassessment of about 425,000 residential and commercial properties countywide in an attempt to rebalance an outdated system. The rolls had been frozen for eight years prior. 

The last time the county updated assessed values was for the 2021-22 tax year because Curran paused the program, citing market instability during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She then kept them frozen for another year, the 2023-24 tax year, a decision her administration made while running for reelection in 2021. 

Blakeman, a Republican, vowed during his 2021 county executive campaign to "fix a broken system." He defeated Curran in November 2021 and since taking office in January 2022 has kept the rolls frozen.

Nassau Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove), the legislature's minority leader, said Blakeman "hasn't lifted a finger" to fix the property tax assessment system and "inequities are spiraling out of control."

She said Blakeman "dragged us [Nassau County] back to the dark ages where homeowners have to fight tooth and nail just to avoid being overtaxed. That’s not leadership — it’s laziness," DeRiggi-Whitton said. "Now, with the county freezing the tax roll for a fifth straight year, inequities are spiraling out of control, and the assessment roll is a complete mess. If he can’t do the basic job of ensuring fair and accurate assessments, what exactly is he doing?"

Boyle declined to respond to DeRiggi-Whitton's assertions. 

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.