Letter: Tax increases are on school bills
Residents living at the Hamlet in Plainview meet at the community house to deal with the problem of double-digit hikes in their latest school tax bill. (Nov. 8, 2012) Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams, Jr.
As reported in "Taxing situation" [News, Jan. 6], many of us recently saw a large increase in our school taxes. This is due to Nassau's broken tax assessment system, a system that County Executive Edward Mangano has promised to fix. Instead, he has just passed the buck to our school districts and local governments.
In 2010, along with my Democratic colleagues in the Nassau County Legislature, I voted against pushing the responsibility for the county's assessment mistakes on to our local schools and municipalities. But every Republican legislator voted in favor of this. Now our schools are left to decide whether they cut programs and services our children depend on, or raise taxes.
So when Mangano and the Republican legislators say they haven't raised our taxes, it doesn't pass the smell test. Our taxes are increasing under this Republican administration. It doesn't matter which line on our tax bill the increases come from, the fact is that it ultimately comes from our pocketbooks.
Kevan Abrahams, Freeport
Editor's note: The writer is the Nassau County Legislature's minority leader.
