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The Levittown Property Owners Association met on Nov. 12, 2002 with Nassau County Assessor Charles O'Shea, who discussed the ongoing countywide reassessment of 416,000 properties in Nassau County. The reassessment includes residential and commercial properties. "It was necessitated through a court settlement of a lawsuit brought by minority homeowners who claimed the current over 60-year-old system based on 1938 construction costs was unfair, causing them to pay higher taxes," stated O'Shea. Chairman of the Nassau County Board of Assessors, he is administering the court settlement requiring property reassessment to rectify the situation. The court settlement required reassessment to be completed in three years, although O'Shea said it would have been better if they'd had four years. The reassessments will be updated annually for six years (2003-2009). The changes will be reflected first on the October, 2003 school tax rate bill and on the January, 2004 town and county tax rate bill, he added. All four classes of property will be re-evaluated based on today's market value, as required by the judge in the case. "No one is locked in," O'Shea said, "because market values can go up or down, and every year's changes will be monitored by a judge." He added that beside the property tax, there are over 400 tax-rate making jurisdictions in Nassau County, some voted on, some set by elected officials. The property tax system is the way government operates, he noted. Throughout his discussion, O'Shea stressed the goals of correctness, accuracy and fairness in the reassessment process. Mr. O'Shea stated that he was here to address problems residents have experienced when forms were mailed from the Cole Layer Trumble Company (CLT), employed by Nassau County to conduct the reassessment. He added that we will get a letter the first or second week of December with CLT's figures; on Jan. 2, 2003 the new values will be listed in Nassau County's "tentative assessment rolls." The Department will have forms available by the second week of December for those who disagree with or wish to challenge the reassessment figures. These forms must be filed from Jan. 1, 2003 to March 1, 2003. Members submitted written questions to O'Shea. These included: 1) Why and how was the Cole Layer Trumble Company (CLT) selected? And 2) Why is there an attempt to block the public's knowledge of what Cole Layer Trumble is doing? 3) Where does CLT get their information for their figures? 4) Why are numbers of bathrooms considered and not numbers of kitchens in the evaluation? 5) Why are some sections of Levittown's 60 x 100 land values ("R," "S" and "E" sections) different even though they're in the same school district? 6) How come my veteran's exemption was reduced by one-half? 7) Why are different-sized houses evaluated the same? etc. Other questions were added. As for the choice of CLT, O'Shea stated that Nassau County contacted over 40 reassessment firms through the country for the job to be done in three years, and only two companies responded, both of them among the largest appraiser companies in the U.S. One was a company hired and then released by Westchester County for incompetency. The other was Cole Layer Trumble, in business around 65 years, and the largest such company in the U.S. O'Shea felt they chose the right company. As for making information available, O'Shea said, "Blocking information is the last thing (they) want to do, that CLT has prepared a website and over 600,000 have used this website." He added that certain information can only be released by CLT (a private company) to the county on Jan. 1, then this information will be available to the county comptroller. As for CLT's figures, O'Shea said they were based on the market value of sales of homes for the last three years (1999-2001), considered in 175 value areas. As for number of bathrooms considered and not number of kitchens, O'Shea said this is a state requirement, and number of kitchens is a matter of town zoning requirements, handled by town enforcement, as two kitchens usually means an illegal or multiple-family home. "A two-family or multiple family home is assessed higher, but it's the town's job and not the county's to take action when it is illegal." As for land valuation variations, O'Shea suggested this could be challenged if CLT's assessment is too high even though their figures are based on sales for the last three years. His job, he said, is to see accuracy and fairness prevail. As for reduced veterans exemptions, this was decided by the county legislature. As for reduction in Star exemptions, the county used the option given to it by N.Y. State Law, and its plan was also passed by the county legislature. Because it was felt it would cost the county revenue, the Democratic majority voted for, the Republican minority against these changes in exemptions. ("Legislator Dennis Dunne voted against," he noted.) President Morrow remarked that we should find out who sponsored these changes. As for larger-smaller houses assessed similarly, O'Shea said if there are obvious inconsistencies, then a mistake has been made, and CLT should be contacted; the data deadline, however, was until Nov. 15. When asked about fire district tax rates, O'Shea said this is determined by the elected fire commissioner's budget. He added that tax rates can be voted on by referendum or by the people who are elected to set those rates in various districts. An assessment can be challenged by the individual or a challenge service or lawyer (for a fee) by filling out a three-page form. This form is available in the assessor's office the first week of December, and the challenge must be submitted between Jan. 1 to March 1. O'Shea's office has two phones: 571-1500 (to order forms) and 571-2490 (Dept. of Assessments). CLT has nothing to do with challenges. "The success of reassessment in the long term may be good, in the short term, uncertain. We will probably get 80-90,000 challenges; the cost to the county will be the key to its success," O'Shea stated. The time limit of three years bothered him, but he felt that by re-assessment the county settled a lawsuit, and didn't lose it. As usual, Mr. O'Shea delivered to the LPOA an informative, lucid and well-prepared presentation. He distributed printed explanations of exemption changes in the STAR program and of the proposed veteran's legislation. He also spoke to individual members and arranged appointments with them. After Mr. O'Shea departed, homeowners near the North Village Green expressed concern about the demolition going on at the site where an application has been filed to erect a church. Their concern is about possible asbestos and the lack of adequate parking spaces. The issue will be discussed at future meetings. The next meeting of the LPOA will be on Dec. 10, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the Levittown Public Library Community Room. |
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How to Challenge the Tax Assessment of Property in Nassau County Nassau
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"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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