Just Sayin': It's time to fix broken property tax system

It’s time to fix broken property tax system

It’s the time of year when my mailbox begins to fill up with Nassau County property tax grievance firms offering to cut my property taxes for a “modest” fee of 50% of any reduction they can get for me. Is this any way to run a modern government tax collection system? The obvious answer is “no way.”

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and the Republican-majority Nassau County Legislature ran campaigns in 2021 promising a quick fix to our broken property tax assessment system. We are now into the ninth month of the Blakeman administration, and there is no word on any plans to fix the system. My question is “why?” There’s been a lot of talk and no action, in this aggrieved taxpayer’s opinion.

 — James Sheridan, Wantagh

Following road signs can have benefits

I also see drivers ignoring stop signs — probably because many drivers are in such a big hurry these days [“There’s no stopping LI’s bad drivers,” Just Sayin’, Aug. 27].

Quite a few drivers also seem to have forgotten how to make left turns at intersections that have a traffic light. They wait behind the white line and only proceed when all is clear to make the turn. This is no doubt because they are concerned about getting a red-light camera ticket. This fear causes them to get stuck at red lights that they could easily avoid by simply being ahead of the white line in the intersection before the light turns red, and then completing their turn when the oncoming traffic comes to a stop.

Doing so will save drivers time, and they will not get an unpleasant surprise in the mail. Then, perhaps with this newfound time savings, they can stop treating stop signs as glorified yield signs.

 — Chris McNulty, Great Neck

I couldn’t agree more about Long Island’s bad drivers. The stop sign has become a “Stoptional” sign, meaning if a driver pulls up to a stop sign and no other vehicles are approaching, why stop? If I and three other readers have witnessed these and other infractions on a daily basis, I am sure the Nassau and Suffolk county police departments and other law enforcement officers have witnessed it, too. Enough is enough.

 — Andrew Dooley, New Hyde Park

I am 71. When I received my driver’s license at the age of 17, the standards apparently were much higher. Not too long after, the standards to get a license seemed to go down significantly. Other standards in our country have also declined significantly. Take “education,” for example. Solutions exist, but they will require work and sacrifice.

Today, our elected officials are loose with our tax money and then say, “Vote for me.” Our country’s motto has become “spend, borrow, tax.” Our veterans did not sacrifice their lives, families or careers for what we have today. It’s a tragedy.

 — Richard Reiser, Great Neck