Head of Nassau assessment panel says county stonewalling

The head of a panel appointed to study Nassau's troubled tax assessment system says he has become convinced that the county is not seeking to fix it, and simply wants to deter home and business owners from filing challenges.

"The goal is: just get them to not file (appeals,)" Mark Hamer said in an interview. "That's fiat. That's a dictatorship."

Hamer said aides to County Executive Edward Mangano have "stonewalled" efforts by the Assessment Review Team he chairs to get information, and he was reduced to filing Freedom of Information Law requests with the county last week.

"It's clear they've allowed politics to interfere with good government," said Hamer, who owns and manages commercial properties.

Mangano, a Republican, ran a long-shot campaign for county executive last year, largely on a platform promising to fix the assessment system and curb government spending.

He has taken several steps toward that fix, in part by proposing to freeze assessments for four years. But a proposal he offered earlier this month to speed commercial settlements drew strong reactions from his own Assessment Review Team. Tax challenges costs the county more than $100 million in refunds annually because of overassessments.

Mangano released a statement Thursday about Hamer's comments adding, "Nassau taxpayers have joined me in demanding a fix to our broken assessment system. I will not stand by allowing reforms to be comprised by lawyers who get rich off a broken system. Instead, I'm moving forward with real solutions that end the waste of $250 million each year."

In a recent interview Hamer said he had "a lot of optimism" when he started work on the panel, but that changed when Mangano recently put out his plan while the board had trouble getting information.

"Whether it was a deliberate decision on someone's part to ignore our requests or simple bureaucratic indifference, we still do not have the information we have been requesting," he said.

Mangano appointed the nine-member Assessment Review Team - heavy with tax appeals specialists and real estate people - in January and directed they report to him in June on how to fix the assessment system.

His legislative proposal for initial changes to commercial tax appeals would require commercial property owners who want to challenge their assessments to submit either a certified appraisal or a good-faith counteroffer - generally defined as 85 of the county's estimate - of the property's value by Oct. 1. They would face a $5,000 fine if they submitted neither, and continued their challenge.

Hamer, of Jericho, and another member of the study team, Brad Blumenfeld of Syosset, said the bill, which passed committees, was unfair and would pressure smaller commercial owners to settle rather than pay the fine.

Sought

What Mark Hamer and Assessment Review Board members are seeking from Nassau under the Freedom of Information Law.