Nassau County owes $ 17.2 million to homeowners after losing thousands of legal challenges over property valuations in the 2020-21 tax year, the first of the statewide revaluation received by the Newsday show.
Refunds are owed to 7,427 homeowners who won their valuation cases against the county after tax bills were sent out in November, according to a new report from the Legislature’s Impartial Budget Review Bureau.
In addition, settlements made prior to tax assessments being issued resulted in a shift of nearly $ 200 million in property taxes from homeowners who successfully battled their valuations to those who lost their cases or failed to appeal, county data shows . Since the amount of money to be raised through taxes remains constant, the cuts made to homeowners have to be made up for by others.
Nassau publishes a preliminary valuation list every January informing owners about how their homes are being valued. Homeowners usually have until the end of April to appeal against the values assigned by the district. Tax bills won’t go out until October.
Nassau County’s tax appeal process consists of two steps. The first is to file a complaint with the Assessment Review Commission. Those who lose at ARC can then appeal in the Small Claims Assessment Review or SCAR.
For the 2020-21 tax year, a total of 80,000 taxpayers appealed through SCAR.
Nassau resolved 58,000 of these challenges through a new mediation program designed to resolve cases quickly, according to a memo from the Nassau Office of Management, Budget and Finance.
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Another 22,000 challenges that could not be resolved have been moved to SCAR’s administrative hearings, records show. And Nassau lost about 13,500 cases, including 7,427 cases won by taxpayers after the tax list was finalized in the fall of 2020, according to the county memo.
With the 7,500 property owners already paying their school and other jurisdiction taxes, Nassau became responsible for repaying $ 17.2 million in overpayments.
The average refund was $ 2,267, according to the county memo.
Nassau officials say that even with the refunds, the average amount of impairment was around 4%, which they and a Westchester County appraiser are calling a minor revision.
Nassau officials also said they were struggling to settle all SCAR claims in time for the tax list to be released as the coronavirus pandemic closed the courts and extended the deadline for filing appeals from April 30 to September 4 weeks before tax invoices are issued.
Nassau County is responsible for reimbursing all overpayments of taxes paid to school districts and other jurisdictions under a state law known as a “State Guarantee”.
Nassau owes the largest 2020-21 average refunds primarily to taxpayers in high-income school districts and communities on the North Shore, according to the Bureau of Legislative Review.
Nassau must reimburse the following amounts:
- $ 1.53 million to owners of 333 lots in the Great Neck School District. The average refund is $ 4,590 per package.
- $ 825,303 to owners of 234 lots in the Port Washington School District. The average refund is $ 3,527 per package.
- $ 707,286 to owners of 165 lots in the Hamlet of Woodbury. The average refund is $ 4,287 per package.
- $ 652,210 to owners of 189 lots in the Roslyn School District. The average refund is $ 3,450 per package.
- $ 641,942 to owners of 157 lots in the Manhasset School District. The average refund is $ 4,089 per package.
Some of the communities receiving the lowest refunds from Nassau include:
- The Roosevelt School Districtwhere $ 5,617 will go to owners of 7 lots. The average refund is $ 802 per package.
- The Island Park School Districtwhere $ 30,811 is due to owners of 22 parcels. The average refund is $ 1,400 per package.
- Valley Stream-24 School District, where $ 33,162 is due to owners of 37 lots. The average refund is $ 896 per package.
- The Valley Stream-30 School Districtwhere $ 36,545 is due to owners of 44 parcels. The average refund is $ 831 per package.
- The Malverne school districtwhere $ 45,991 goes to owners of 43 parcels. The average refund is $ 1,070 per package.
Laura Curran, the managing director of Nassau County, ordered the revaluation of all 386,000 residential properties in time for the 2020-21 tax year in order to create an accurate and fair valuation list. Curran, a Democrat, is running for re-election this year.
Edward Mangano, Curran’s Republican predecessor, introduced a valuation freeze in 2011 that lasted eight years. At the end of his tenure, the properties were undervalued.
Under Mangano, a Republican, the County Assessment Review Commission settled roughly 80% of tax challenges during the freeze period. (Curran left the ban in the 2019-20 tax year.) By granting automatic discounts to many applicants, ARC shifted a large portion of the property tax burden from those who successfully challenged their assessments to those who did not file or win complaints.
Nassau County’s Assistant Assessor Robert Miles said the properties received an average of about 4% depreciation in value for the 2020-21 tax year, despite the large refund, which is a minor revision to their original valuations. Miles said the 4% figure “speaks for the accuracy of the role”.
County officials couldn’t tell how much Nassau had repaid residential property owners in the past prior to the revaluation. Newsday submitted a FOIL request for the data.
It was likely a small amount: the number of SCAR hearings has fluctuated between 5,000 and 10,000 a year for the past decade, compared to 80,000 filed last year.
Prior to the SCAR settlement, ARC granted 61,118 applicants discounts in 2020-21, and the settlements shifted a tax burden of $ 87.2 million from those who received discounts to those who, according to the Legislative Budget Office’s review didn’t do this.
“These savings represent a tax hike for non-challengers and unsuccessful challengers,” the report said.
Approximately two-thirds of property owners who appealed to SCAR received discounts made prior to the establishment of the tax list. The reductions to that estimated 54,000 homeowners resulted in a $ 105 million tax shift on homeowners who fail to successfully challenge their assessments.
According to the report, some churches performed better than others in the ARC process.
In the minority and low-income majority communities of Westbury, Roosevelt, and Hempstead, the percentages of successful challenges were 8.4%, 10.3% and 11.1%, respectively.
The percentage was highest in Long Beach at 51.6%; Lynbrook with 43.5% and East Rockaway with 42.7%.
Larry Clark, director of strategic initiatives for the International Association of Assessing Officers, based in Kansas City, Missouri, said in an interview with Newsday, “Until you get a good solid role that everyone accepts, it’s just going to be about real estate tax shift . “
He continued, “Once you get down to a small number that challenges it every year, the shifts won’t be as noticeable.”
The number of complaints filed with SCAR for the 2021-22 tax year is about 60,000, compared to 80,000 a year earlier, Miles said.
Edye McCarthy, city assessor for Greenburgh in Westchester County, a city of 91,000, said Nassau did many things right in its reassessment.
“Unfortunately, given the timing and timing of the time you complete your assessment rolls to ship your tax rolls, this is a very short time,” she said. “This is why Nassau County has the refund” [liability]”They just didn’t have enough staff.”
McCarthy said Nassau’s average valuation drop of 4% is small: “Nobody, nobody is good enough to get market value today that is just right.”
Lloyd Tasch, president of the New York State Assessor’s Association, said Nassau also has a multitude of appeals to defend each year because of the so many petitions made by law firms that specialize in tax disputes.
Firms generate income by taking on a portion – often 50% – of homeowners’ tax savings when they win their appointments.
“It’s not so much a reflection of a bad reassessment, it’s just the fact that the agents are doing an excellent job of getting their message across, and if there aren’t any downsides why wouldn’t you file a lawsuit,” said Tasch, assessor for the city of the White Plains.
But Legis. Steve Rhoads (R-Bellmore) said the task of overcoming the large number of challenges is “a responsibility that they have [Curran] Administration requested. “
Administration officials “told us they could get it done in time,” said Rhoads. “Unfortunately, the way they have dealt with these valuation challenges has put them in a position where we must now issue refunds.”
Scott Eidler reports on Nassau County’s government and politics for Newsday. Scott has been with Newsday since 2012 and previously worked in local government and education.