Reassessment phase-in to get hearing in Nassau 

Nassau Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) has scheduled a hearing March 4 on County Executive Laura Curran's bill to phase-in reassessment over a five-year period, after declining for nearly a year to hold hearings on the measure.

Nicolello's announcement Monday appeared to end a standoff between legislative Republicans and Democrats.

The phase-in, authorized by the state Legislature in March 2019, is designed to spread out potential increases in tax bills. Changes in the tax burden due to property reassessment — both increases and decreases — effectively would be phased in over five years.

The county Legislature must approve a separate local law for the phase-in to take effect. Curran, a Democrat, filed the legislation April 30. But majority Republicans had refused to call the measure for a hearing, citing a need to review the reassessment more thoroughly. 

Christine Geed, a spokeswoman for Curran, said: “Nassau County is glad that the legislature is moving the Taxpayer Protection Plan forward. Without enacting this phase-in plan, half of residents will see an immediate significant increase in their property taxes. We must protect our taxpayers and finally get this done.”

County officials say the phase-in must be passed by July in order to take effect before the first tax bills are mailed in October. But Democrats said property owners and prospective homebuyers should not have to wait so long to know whether the phase-in would be implemented.

The phase-in hearing is scheduled for March 4 at 7 p.m. in the legislative chambers in Mineola. The hearing also will examine "anomalies" in valuations of high-end properties, Nicolello said in a news conference Monday.

 "We want people to understand how the phase-in is going to affect them," he said.

Nicolello said depending on how the hearing goes, Republicans could schedule a vote on the phase-in by "early spring."

"If we feel that this hearing has given us the information we need, we might do it in March, but we're looking at perhaps April," Nicolello said of a vote. "It gives the county plenty of time to get their tax bills all straightened out" for the release of October school tax bills.

Asked why Republicans had waited so long to schedule the legislation, Nicolello said: "We have been gathering information all along. The hallmark of this reassessment process from the part of the administration is a rushed process. The homeowners in the county lost faith in the system, so the importance is to do this correctly, to have our due diligence."

Democrats, administration officials and industry experts have praised the reassessment for the 2020-21 tax year, describing it as accurate. School tax bills are scheduled to be mailed in October, while general tax bills will go out next January. 

Legis. Laura Schaefer (R-Westbury) said a lot of the caution had to do with concern for homeowners who have been overassessed for years and will take issue with the phase-in.

She said it "really only gives relief to half of the residents, and I don't think we'd be doing our job if we didn't at least turn over all stones and try and make sure there's a way that we can give relief to the people who are going to be overpaying for whatever phase-in is passed."

Also Monday, Geed said the Curran administration was asking the county Assessment Review Commission to provide property owners with a 30-day grace period for grievances for the 2021-2022 tax year. The move would extend the deadline from March 2 to April 2. Last year, the deadline was extended to April 30.

Earlier Monday, legislative Republicans filed legislation to authorize an extension to April 2.

Nicolello said homeowners need more time to review notices of new tax values. But Geed said that notices of tentative assessed values are on schedule to be postmarked Jan. 31 and sent in the mail, as outlined in the law.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.