Nassau GOP proposes bill mandating assessment transparency

<p>The Nassau Legislature&rsquo;s Rules Committee is considering a proposed bill from Republican lawmakers that would mandate the county to provide residents with an estimate of how their property taxes will be impacted by the new assessment system.</p>

News 12 Staff

Oct 3, 2018, 6:54 PM

Updated 2,024 days ago

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Nassau GOP proposes bill mandating assessment transparency
The Nassau Legislature’s Rules Committee is considering a proposed bill from Republican lawmakers that would mandate the county to provide residents with an estimate of how their property taxes will be impacted by the new assessment system.
News 12 reported last week that Nassau Executive Laura Curran signed an order changing the way in which the county assesses properties. The move is designed to ensure accurate assessments, but is expected to lead to significant increases or decreases to individual tax bills.
Nassau Legislature's Presiding Officer Republican Rich Nicolello says the county ought to provide residents with an estimate of what's to come.
"The notices that the administration will be sending out next month will inform people about assessed values, fair market values, things of that nature," says Nicolello. "Those notices will not tell people what the impact will be on their taxes. We want to see that these notices contain tax impact data, so if your assessment is changing, the county can estimate how much your taxes will change."
Legislative Democrats say that while transparency is important, accuracy is paramount. They are not sure if this bill accomplishes either of those two goals.
Democratic Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams says he's concerned estimates provided this year won't accurately reflect the market conditions to come in 2020 when the assessment change will first impact taxpayers.
“I don't want to present anything to the taxpayers that will frustrate them and get them angry if it’s based on a hypothetical and it’s not realistic. The last thing we want to do is create fear,” says Abrahams.
A spokesperson for County Executive Curran provided News 12 with a statement from the county assessor, who says the administration plans to "make tax impact information available to every property owner" before January.


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