Lawsuit: Nassau assessment freezes help shift tax burdens in Amityville and Farmingdale school districts

Nassau County's local tax system has unfairly shifted the tax burden onto some Suffolk homeowners whose school districts fall in both counties, according to a federal lawsuit.

At issue is the way property taxes are assessed in school districts that lie in two assessing jurisdictions, according to Babylon Town officials and residents who sued the county and state agencies. The suit focuses on the way taxes are determined for residents in the Nassau and Suffolk parts of the Amityville and Farmingdale school districts.

Both are considered "split districts," with some property owners residing in Nassau and others in Suffolk's Babylon Town. Nassau assesses property values for the county, but in Suffolk, it's the towns that handle assessments.

The suit alleges Babylon residents' share of the tax levy in both districts grew "expeditiously and inequitably," while Nassau's declined because of the county's assessing practices. 

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the county had "caused residents on the same street (one side within the Town of Babylon, Suffolk County and one side in the County of Nassau) to be forced to pay extremely different tax rates for the same school districts for similarly situated properties."

The lawsuit contends Babylon residents in the two districts saw their "taxable burden" increase 19% as a result of Nassau's actions. The effect was most acute in the Farmingdale district, where Babylon Town residents' school taxes rose by an average range of $1,500 to $2,000 over the last tax cycle, Babylon Town Assessor Matt Cronin said.

There is "severe inequality between taxpayers of the same class," the lawsuit said. The "draconian, unfair and unequal assessment of taxes" places the "taxable burden" of Nassau upon Babylon Town residents, the suit added.

The defendants include Nassau, New York State, the State Board of Real Property Tax Services, several state officials and both chambers of the State Legislature. The suit was filed in May in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York.

Nassau spokesman Chris Boyle said in an email attorneys are "reviewing the lawsuit with the initial impression that it has no merit in law or fact."

Halimah Elmariah, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office, which is handling the case for the state defendants, declined to comment.

Equalization rate

To compare property values in Babylon and Nassau, state officials use an "equalization rate" to draw a fair measure.

Cronin said in an email that "each municipality’s share of the school tax is based on what percentage of the total market value it represents."

In a split school district, failing to update properties' market value data can have an outsized effect, according to the website for the state Department of Taxation and Finance. If market values in one town rise more sharply than in another, the first community's tax burden will spike more.

An exhibit in the lawsuit alleges "fair market values" in Babylon rose more than in Nassau in the two districts because the county's equalization rate has remained flat.

Nassau's equalization rate has stayed flat in part due to the county's failure to update assessments and market value data, town officials have said. Babylon's equalization rate has shifted because it's captured rising property values across the town, town officials have said. Nassau has frozen its assessments, a practice critics said erodes the accuracy of its tax rolls, Newsday has reported. 

As a point of comparison, the suit cites the previous two tax cycles in the Farmingdale and Amityville districts in which the total tax levies increased year over year.

Babylon residents shouldered more of the increase, according to the lawsuit.

For example, in Farmingdale, the district's overall tax levy in 2024-25 rose nearly $4 million to $140.4 million. Babylon Town residents' share of the total levy increased nearly 3% that year, while Nassau's portion fell by 3%.

In Amityville, the district's overall tax levy in 2024-25 was $65.8 million, up nearly $2 million. In that year, Babylon Town residents' share of the overall levy rose by more than 2.5%, while Nassau residents' portion decreased by the same percentage, according to the exhibit.

"Babylon Town residents in East Farmingdale and Amityville are literally bearing the tax burden for Nassau County residents and it’s completely against fair taxation," Cronin said in an interview. "Just because one property sits across the county line, it doesn’t make it any more or less valuable."

A 'free pass'?

The suit includes several Babylon Town residents as plaintiffs, including Shari Bardash-Eivers, 61, of East Farmingdale.

"We took a major hit last year and somehow we just have to be made whole," she said. Nassau taxpayers "got a free pass last year, and in fact they got a little gift."

Babylon Town and Nassau County have not been updating its assessed values in recent years, officials have said.

Nassau reassessed hundreds of thousands of properties beginning with the 2019-20 tax year after assessments were frozen for nearly a decade. But for the past five years, county officials have frozen tax assessments again — even as home sales climbed, Newsday has reported.

The suit also accuses the State Board of Real Property Tax Services of failing to verify Nassau's market value data, which in turn affected the equalization rate the state is responsible for setting.

The county "failed to verify and ensure up to date and current real market value data was provided" to the state so the Office of Real Property Tax Services could "set a proper equalization rate" for Nassau, the lawsuit said. The state "had a statutory obligation to verify" that Nassau's "real market value data ... was accurate and current," lawyers for the plaintiffs, Keith Corbett and Gabriella Amato of the Harris Beach Murtha Cullina law firm in Uniondale, wrote.

Cronin previously served as Nassau County's acting assessor from May 2022 to July 2023, including during the period of the freezes. He said he provided accurate data to state officials.

"From what I can remember going back ... it was to the best of my ability to submit accurate data to the state," he said. "In order to make any type of an adjustment for Nassau County, it's moving a mountain ... it is not an easy thing to do."