Assessing a reply on Nassau tax assessments

Newsday’s editorial “Fix assessments system in Nassau” [Opinion, April 21] appears to have hit a nerve with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. He responded to the editorial with a letter spinning the problems with his administration “Now, fewer errors with assessment,” Opinion, May 8].

Blakeman makes statements that are flawed. First, he says his administration “uncovered the mistakes and made the proper adjustments timely and meticulously.” He then writes that “we are more proactive in our quality control.”

The first major errors were solely under his own administration. The Department of Assessment made a data entry error where over 800 properties got increased bills. The errors, made in June, were caught when homeowners called it to the DOA’s attention in October. What’s worse, they repeated the same error in the general bills. Both errors cost the county $2 million.

The second error was the removal of tax-exempt status from a Great Neck church. This error was caught by the church, not the DOA. This is hardly what Blakeman described.

The third major error, made in the closing days of former County Executive Laura Curran’s administration, was not caught for more than 18 months. This resulted in homeowners getting last-minute notices of large increases in their assessment, which provided little time to grieve that increased assessment.

— Scott Diamond, Levittown

There’s a simple, apolitical solution to the Nassau assessment debacle. Use the California Proposition 13 method (although not its 2% cap): Any time a house is sold, the selling price becomes the new assessed value. No need for any appeals. It’s what you paid for the house.

And there’s the added benefit of not taxing long-term residents — especially the elderly — out of their homes. A change to New York State law may be needed to implement this, but who (besides the tax grievance companies) would object?

— Don Weimer, Babylon