(Photo courtesy of the Nassau County Legislature)
Legislator Rose Marie Walker of Old Bethpage and the Republican Majority Caucus of the Nassau County Legislature held a press conference on the front steps of the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola recently to announce their “Assessment Bill of Rights,” a package of bills aimed at providing protections for taxpayers in the assessment process. This package of legislation will come before the legislature later this summer.
“The Assessment Bill of Rights introduced today will help residents make sure that their assessments are correct and came from a fair and transparent process,” Legislator Walker said. “I look forward to seeing it pass with bipartisan support, thereby restoring faith in what has been an error riddled process. Nassau taxpayers deserve nothing less.”
The bills include a law mandating that the county executive sends out notices to homeowners that grieved their taxes stating the result of their grievance, legislation forcing the administration to send out new tax impact notices, laws restricting the department of assessment from entering homes without the permission of the homeowner as well as limiting the scope of what inspectors may look at when an assessment is challenged and legislation putting a cap on the ability of the county executive to change the level of assessment in order to avoid the state law limiting increases in assessed value beginning 2020. There are also bills that will require the county assessor to live in Nassau County and hold multiple hearings throughout the county to answer questions from residents.
“This package of bills would ensure that residents’ assessments came from a fair and transparent process,” said Legislator James Kennedy of Massapequa. “The county executive’s assessment has eroded taxpayers’ trust and these measures will go a long way in restoring that trust. Nassau County taxpayers deserve nothing less.”
Finally, the legislature is looking to install a requirement for the Department of Assessment to disclose the formula or algorithm by which the assessed property value is determined. This legislation would force within five days, the release of all electronic data files, formulas and materials utilized to determine the tentative assessment roll.
