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New York’s Nassau County Tax Assessment May Yield Appeal Business Appraisers
in Nassau County, New York, could expect a bonanza in tax appeal business as a
result of the county’s first new tax assessment in 60 years, which has local
lawmakers predicting as many as 100,000 homeowners contesting the latest rolls.
Some, including James MacCrate, MAI, the only licensed appraiser who serves on
the Nassau County Board of Assessors, have doubts about the roll. This
year, about 57,000 homeowners and 20,000 owners of commercial property filed tax
grievances. Next year, that number is expected to jump to 100,000, Harvey B.
Levinson, special assistant for tax assessment to county Executive Thomas R.
Suozzi, said. "Many people's taxes will be going up, and I think there is a
large concern that the system was flawed. There are a lot of very angry people
out there, so that's why I think a lot of people are going to be filing."
MacCrate, who voted against the new roll, which passed 3-2 on December
30, said he had not been able to get answers to his questions about the
processes used by Cole Layer Trumble, the Ohio-based company hired to conduct
the mass reappraisal. While the standards of the court appear to have been met
on Class 1 properties, MacCrate said, the board was not provided with enough
information to determine whether the company had met the standards required for
professional appraisers on Class 1, 2, 3 and 4 properties. The
new roll is tentative and won't be final until April 1, and the county expects a
lot of challenges. From Jan. 2 through March 3, homeowners who disagree with the
new values can file petitions to challenge their assessment with the nine-member
Nassau Assessment Review Commission. The new assessments will not show up on tax
bills until October, when they will be used to calculate school taxes. County
and town tax bills will not reflect the changes until January 2004. Other dissenters, such as board member Jeffrey Gold, who also voted
against the rolls, complained that waterfront and luxury homes are underassessed
and that the wealthy will pay too little in property taxes while forcing low-
and middle-income homeowners to pay too much. However, the majority said the new
values for the county's 416,000 residential and commercial properties are a
marked improvement over previous assessments, which were based not on market
value, but on a bizarre mix of 1964 land values and 1938 construction costs. The reassessment was mandated by a court-ordered settlement of a 1997
lawsuit charging that the old system put an unfair burden on homeowners in black
and Hispanic neighborhoods. The court ordered the new assessments to be based on
fair market values and to be put in place by Jan. 1. On Dec. 20, State Supreme
Court Justice F. Dana Winslow approved the new residential values but also set
stringent standards for updating the rolls each year to reflect the changing
real estate market. One new requirement that Justice Winslow imposed, with an
eye toward perfecting assessments during yearly updates, was that starting in
2004, a home's resale price would be the minimum amount set for its assessment. |
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How to Challenge the Tax Assessment of Property in Nassau County Nassau
County Property Records Search Search Long Island Real Estate Sales
How to challenge your
assessment
Last modified: April 18, 2004 05:10:22 PM
"Lawmakers heard complaints from a Levittown homeowner whose house "This truly is the perfect financial storm," said Erie County schools Superintendent James Barker when speaking about the work done by Cole Layer & Trumble. AS Newsday made clear, Cole Layer & Trumble really messed up. Its a shame they didn't get it right the first time out, and resisted all efforts to correct itself, because then the people who will see tax increase would have had the opportunity to review their methodology and their valuation. - J.G. For its part, Cole Layer Trumble admits that in reassessing more than 400,000 properties, an error rate of about 10 percent occurred. That's over 40,000 properties that were incorrectly valued during reassessment. Bruce Nagel, Cole Layer Trumble's chief executive officer, said, "These measures [the assessments] are based on statistics. That doesn't mean there aren't mistakes." What the hell does that double negative mean Bruce? "Many people's taxes will be going up, and I think there is a large concern that the system was flawed,'' said Harvey Levinson, the county executive's special assistant for reassessment. "There are a lot of angry people out there!" Cole Layer Trumble was given a stern warning by Tom Suozzi last month. Telling them to, “Shape Up,” and correct mistakes that would cost taxpayers millions of dollars, Suozzi noted that those effected should take every means necessary to correct errors and contest over-taxation. Stopping short of admitting the re-val was flawed, the County Executive did admit that early warnings of problems with CLTs methodology were probably true. Visomirski said of the 500 homes he has looked at in Shaler and the surrounding area, about 180 or 36 % have some kind of description error. "And I'm just in a little area up here. Imagine what that must be throughout the county," he said. "The little guy gets screwed again -- can they afford a lawyer for their claim?" Lake County Assessor Paul Karras said. "The whole thing stunk right from the beginning." Last year, Christensen and a group of other taxpayers filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the city, alledging an arbitrary and capricious assessment which targeted newcomers and poor people. The city, and consultant firm Cole-Layer-Trumble, who performed the reevaluation, have denied the charges. The suit remains in court. Lee Acquista, the Erie County Assessment Board's lawyer said the board will meet "behind closed doors under a provision to the state Sunshine Act" that he said allows for private discussions about changes to policy. This practice seems to be the norm for Cole Layer & Trumble. Meeting behind closed doors with county assessors while hiding behind the "Sunshine Act". What is Cole Layer & Trumble Hiding from us?
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