Nassau's string of tax assessment blunders

Some 7,000 property owners in Nassau County got letters last week informing them of an "informal" way to settle disputes over assessments.

Problem One is that, for some property owners, the letters arrived too close to Monday's deadline to participate in the Assessment Negotiation and Settlement Program.

Problem Two is that property owners with questions about the brand-new program - which, Problem Three, is not mentioned on the county's website - were asked to call a telephone number that, as of Monday afternoon, was playing this: "I'm sorry, but there is no room right now to record your message."

Problem Four is that, according to a county official, the telephone was set up to record only 20 messages - upped to 50 as of Monday.

Which, Problem Five, demonstrates incredibly poor planning coming off a week that included Washington's Birthday - which, for some, was also winter vacation because so many schools were on break.

Tuesday, meanwhile, is a separate deadline for property owners to appeal the assessments they received earlier this year (which won't go into effect until next year). And that deadline stands even though property owners complained that some of the 400,000 notification letters went out late.

That would be Problem Six, except that the county's website makes crystal clear that the deadline stands whether or not property owners receive notice. Besides, officials point out, the information has been available on the county website since Jan. 3.

But that hardly solves Problems Seven and Eight, which are that the notices went out later and contained less information than usual. Property owners used to receive them in January along with a list of comparable properties, which gave a hint as to how the assessment was reached. This time around, there are no comparables - in the letters or on the county website - which leads us to Problem Nine, which is that property owners are left in the dark on how their assessments came to be.

Problem Ten is that Nassau - beginning with the January roll - is switching from assessing a property's value annually to assessing it every four years.

But, Problem Eleven, no mention is made of the switch on the county website - other than "news" from County Executive Edward Mangano touting the change as part of his plan to "fix" the assessment system.

A Q&A about appeals on the assessment review commission's website - the logical place for a property owner to look - as of Monday included information only about the old system. The county's website, meanwhile, also fails to make another point: Property owners who don't appeal will, as always, be left holding the tax bag for property owners who appeal and win - an issue raised repeatedly in a draft audit of the system by the county comptroller's office.

Property owners will retain the right to appeal each year, even during the new four-year cycle. But - and this is a major Problem Twelve, which also was included in the comptroller's draft review - they will do so under a set of proposed changes that likely would make future appeals more difficult to win.

One problem would be reason for concern; 12 are reasons for Nassau to consider extending both deadlines. According to a county official, that would require state legislative approval.

But county Legis. David Denenberg - a Democrat from Merrick, who, along with Donald Clavin, a Republican tax receiver in Hempstead, received complaints from constituents - offered up another, easier path.

"We could work it so that the cases of residents who file late, say, until April 1, are considered by the assessment review commission rather than being rejected outright for lack of timeliness," he said.

It's an idea worth pursuing. Property owners need any break they can get.