A new year and a new higher real estate tax
assessment! This is certainly a difficult way for Laura Curran’s Democratic
Administration to start off the New Year – being handed a broken system and
having to handle numerous complaints from angry residents who don’t understand
that it will take time to correct the underlying tax assessment problem in
Nassau County.
In addition to residential real estate tax
assessments, there are hundreds of millions of dollars owed for overpayment of
real estate taxes to commercial property owners. It will take some imaginative
thinking to reform the way the assessment system has “not worked” the last
eight years. The challenge will be to correct inaccurate assessments early,
before years of excessive taxes are collected. There is also a challenge to
taxpayers to keep good records and to be in a position to prove over
assessments, if warranted. The Nassau and New York City protest period begins
now and is open until February 28, 2018. Suffolk protests start in May.
