Where is My Nassau County Tax Refund?

Recently newspaper headlines in Nassau County have focused largely on the mass rounds of government employee pay cuts and firings. According to the County, the blame for these pay cuts and firings is a $300 million budget deficit.

I understand that expenses have to be cut. However, this layoff scenario in the County Attorney’s Certiorari Department, Assessment Review Commission and Treasurer’s Department is a classic “kick the can down the road” to the next administration. Who will suffer? Certainly, anyone entitled to a tax assessment reduction/refund might not have the wherewithal to wait for relief. Try and tell the mortgage company or the tax receiver “I expect to get an assessment reduction and refund, my attorney settled the case. However, it will be several years until I receive my refund. Can you wait?”

The failure of the Nassau County Legislature and Administration to work with NIFA in accepting over $100 million dollars in bonds to pay off the judgments ordering real estate tax refunds is not only disgraceful, it makes very little sense. Why would the County not want to payoff these interest earning judgments as soon as possible? The slower the real estate tax refund process is, the higher will be the ultimate payout because of the interest accrued. Wouldn’t the County rather spend their money some other way than just paying off interest due? Doesn’t the tax payer deserve their refund immediately?

GREAT ASSESSMENT NEWS!

Most municipalities, including Nassau County, assess properties at a fraction of its estimated fair market value. The Nassau County Assessor has claimed for the past several years to be assessing commercial properties at 1% of its fair market value. However, we have just entered into an agreement with the Nassau County Attorney’s Office to negotiate the 2011/12 and 2012/13 assessments as though the assessments are based on .905% of the actual fair market value.

What exactly does this mean?

If a property is assessed at 10,000, the County Assessor’s website would claim a fair market value of $1,000,000. However, due to the agreement mentioned above, the County Attorney’s Office will negotiate tax reduction proceedings as if the property is assessed as worth $1,105,000.

Thus, if the property is really worth $1,000,000, and the County agrees to negotiate as if the property is assessed at $1,105,000, then the taxpayer would get a 10% reduction in assessment to bring their estimated fair market value down to $1,000,000.

The moral of this story … there is more than one way … to get a tax reduction.

NASSAU REAL ESTATE TAX ASSESSMENTS IN TURMOIL

Many Nassau County tax assessments have been reduced, but beware! Tax rates will have to be increased to meet the budgets. Almost daily we see a news story or opinion article on the outdated and broken Nassau County real estate tax assessment system. The probable take over of Nassau finances by NIFA (Nassau Interim Finance Authority) exacerbates the situation. Recently the County Executive announced a private appraisal firm would negotiate the real estate tax protests with the tens of thousands of homeowners complaining about their assessments. The administrative review of the commercial cases has all but stopped. There is a lot going on but so far the system has become more complicated and cumbersome. Maybe that's the plan.