Nassau misses deadline on Garden City school tax bill

Nassau has missed the deadline for paying a hefty Garden City school tax bill created by the county's own assessment error, ratcheting up the cost of its mistake.

Hempstead Town Tax Receiver Donald Clavin said Tuesday he has yet to receive the first half-payment of the nearly $1.3-million school tax bill due Nov. 10. By law, he said, Nassau must now add a 2 percent penalty to its payment.

The penalty will add $12,775.02 to the $638,751.11 school tax bill, he said. If the bill is not paid by Dec. 1, a 3 percent penalty will be due on the original amount, increasing a percentage point every month until June, when it would be turned over to the county treasurer to collect.

"By law, we can only accept a payment now with a penalty," Clavin said. "That goes for any taxpayer, from the homeowner and the business, to Nassau County. Everybody gets treated equally."

Brian Nevin, a spokesman for County Executive Edward Mangano, blamed "bureaucracy" for the delay. He said the county treasurer is processing the check. He declined to give a date when it will be delivered. "In the near future," he said.

Clavin said he worried the late payment could have an adverse impact on the Garden City school district, which would normally receive the money by the end of the month.

Garden City School Superintendent Robert Feirsen could not be reached Tuesday.

County property is usually tax exempt. But the assessment roll sent out by the county for the Oct. 1 school bills was riddled with errors, including mathematical mistakes and exemptions erroneously added or deleted from some properties.