Legality of Nassau reassessment to be decided by March 31?

The lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the legality of Nassau's property tax reassessment said he believes the judge wants a final decision on the case by March 31 -- the day before the new values become final.

Sands Point homeowner Eric Berliner said State Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bucaria, at a hearing today in Mineola, directed that Berliner's lawyer Scott Mollen submit by next Wednesday a list of expert witnesses and the names of all county officials they want to testify under oath.

Berliner has said that he wants to call County Executive Laura Curran to testify about the reassessment.

Bucaria also ordered the county to provide in 20 days all the models, formulas and algorithms used to develop the new residential reassessments that were issued last year.

"Hopefully the final decision will give all taxpayers in Nassau County the proper relief for the benefit of the residents and for the county itself," Berliner said. "The reality is if we lose, everybody loses, except the people underassessed."

Berliner and three other Nassau homeowners sued in April to stop the new values from taking effect, claiming the reassessment was arbitrary, secretive and violated constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process.

Bucaria today rejected homeowners' claims that Nassau had violated their due process protections, but denied the county's other motions to dismiss the lawsuit.

Bucaria also granted the homeowners' request for class action status.

In his 23-page decision, Bucaria noted that more than 230,000 of the county's near 400,000 homeowners had appealed their new assessments.

"The fact that more than half of all...residential homeowners are challenging their tentative assessment is indicative of the systemic nature" of the case, Bucaria wrote.

He said homeowners contend the methodology used by the county to conduct the countywide reassessment was capricious and arbitrary, but the county had not proved it wasn't.

"It appears that not all aspects of the software algorithms, formula, computer modeling and data employed in (developing the values) have been provided in response to requests by the defendants. The court finds that the information requested is necessary..." 

Bucaria also appeared to questioned whether "neighborhood factors" used by the county to finalize assessments violate equal protection guarantees.

He noted that past court decisions have found that equal protection means "that all persons similarly situated must be treated alike."

He continued, "That equally valuable properties within a community allegedly received strikingly different valuations by virtue of a discretionary neighborhood designation not only argues against rough equality and uniformity but makes any allegation of an arbitrary distinction palpable."

The county offered "no rational basis for the alleged disparate treatment from the utilized neighborhood factoring, nor can this Court conceive of one.”