Mangano Fulfills Promise to Stop Annual Reassessment
Emergency measures needed to reduce the $250 Million in annual waste
Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano today fulfilled another major promise when signing two Executive Orders addressing the County's broken property tax assessment system.
Executive Order No. 5, the Emergency Taxpayer Protection Order of 2010, signed today addresses the commercial assessment errors that represent the lion’s share of the problem. Under the order, commercial property owners grieving their assessment will be required to obtain and produce a certified appraisal to the county to ensure their property is properly assessed.
“Businesses currently pay 20 percent of the property taxes collected Countywide, yet receive 86 percent of the refunds. By signing this Order, we begin to stop the tens of millions of dollars in tax dollar waste while providing businesses an opportunity to correct their taxes before they are forced to overpay," said Mangano.
Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt said, “This marks the end of the billion dollar experiment. Annual re-assessment has been a dismal failure.”
Nassau’s assessment system generates over 100,000 tax grievances a year, as well as over $100 million in refunds annually due to errors in the system. The debt service on the County’s $1.3 billion of debt incurred to settle prior tax certiorari cases costs taxpayers another $150 million per year, for a combined annual cost of $250 million.
“Nassau County taxpayers are in a State of Emergency,” said Mangano. “That’s exactly why today I am ordering a major change to the way our county assesses property.”
Executive Order No. 6, the Tax Stabilization Order of 2010, signed today by Mangano stops Nassau County's annual assessment system and replaces it with a four-year cyclical system that begins in 2011.
"Today we are accomplishing what prior administrations failed to do. We're taking actions that will relieve taxpayers of a system that wastes taxpayer money," said Mangano. “These are the solutions needed to stop the annual waste of taxpayer dollars and put Nassau's assessment system on the road to recovery.”
