LETTERS: Jackson Avenue fix, assessments and more
Jackson Ave. effort a bipartisan model
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto, Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) and Nassau Legis. Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) are "driving down Jackson Avenue together" to find the solution to fix a dangerous road .
This should serve as the bipartisan model for finding solutions to Long Island's transportation problems.
Laura Schultz
Editor's note: The author is vice president of Residents for a More Beautiful Syosset.
Fences hurt residents; don't help the plovers
I agree with a recent letter writer about the piping plover situation "Piping plovers have Lido locked up," Letters, April 7]. At Road L Beach in Hampton Bays, fences will soon go up blocking access to the entire western portion of the beach. The only thing is, there are never any birds in the first quarter-mile of the beach, and the one or two pairs to the west of this are always killed by predators, within their "protected" areas.
I say let's forget these little creatures, as they'll do better without our help. Leave the entire beach open for taxpayers.
Glenn Abramowitz
Errors acceptable? Not at these tax rates
So New York State gives Nassau County's real estate assessments "top marks for fairness" . Nassau's "coefficient of dispersion" was a mere 6.5 percent. That's calculated by comparing the prices actually paid on homes recently sold, with the tax assessments on those same properties. Evidently, Albany bureaucrats think 6.5 percent is a commendably low figure; I don't!
Last year, the taxes on our modest three-bedroom ranch amounted to $9,000. If our assessment was wrong by 6.5 percent, we could have overpaid by $585. And that's only the average error; what if our assessment was off by a lot more than the average?
Assessments must be based on each property's current market value - an extremely fuzzy, inexact figure. This wasn't important when taxes were modest, but figuring today's high taxes on these very debatable figures makes thousands of tax challenges inevitable.
In my view, property taxes should be scrapped and replaced with an income tax.
James E. Stubenrauch
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
