Nassau Democrats ask for tax grievance deadline to be extended

                                                                                 

Kevan Abrahams

Nassau Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) today asked Republican County Executive Bruce Blakmean to extend to May 2 the current March 1 deadline for county property owners to file challenges to their property tax assessment.

In a letter hand-delivered to Blakeman, Abraham said he was asking on behalf of all seven Democrats on the 19-member County legislature.

"As residents continue to emerge from the myriad of economic challenges that have been caused by COVID-19 and the ongoing disruption to the housing market because of the pandemic, it is essential to provide property owners with every opportunity to challenge the assessed value of their property and ensure that they pay only their fair share of taxes, " Abrahams wrote.

He notes that past county executives have extended the deadline. 

Only former Democratic County Executive Laura Curran claimed she did not have the power to extend the deadline. So she went through the process of asking the Assessment Review Commission, which is controlled by the county executive, to extend the deadline. ARC complied each time.

Before she left office at the end of December, Curran froze assessment increases for this year -- the second year in a row-- because of the housing market upheaval that followed government mandates intended to combat the pandemic. 

Blakeman has appointed former Nassau Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bucaria to be the acting ARC Chairman. Bucaria, who retired from the court at the end of 2020, had handled most of the tax cases that went to Supreme Court, including a challenge to Curran's 2018 reassessment. The county settled by agreeing to provide more transparency about assessment.

Newsday has reported that 219,780 of Nassau's 365,000 single-family homeowners challenged their assessments for the 21-22 tax year and about half accepted reductions. 

                                                                            





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