News

Edward Mangano’s Staff Was Warned about End of Tax Abatement

Newsday recently reported that top staff members for Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano were warned back in July that a popular property tax abatement was due to expire. This abatement cut an average of $166 from senior citizens’ tax bills, and there are no plans for it to be re-applied in 2017. Although his staff members were told that this would happen, Mangano neglected to inform the approximately 44,000 senior citizens who received the abatement, much to their chagrin when they received their general tax bills in the mail. Nassau lawmakers and the county comptroller also complained that they did not know about the end of the tax abatement.

Mangano’s chief deputy county attorney and budget director were notified via email on July 21, 2016 that the abatement had expired. Two other county officials who also received the email said the announcement came from the assessment department. A spokesman for Mangano said the county executive never learned about the expiration of the abatement. Additionally, the date referenced in the email was after the State Legislature finished convening for the year, so it was too late fix the problem last year.

Nassau Legislator Laura Curran said that seniors should have received advance notice of the abatement coming to an end, while County Comptroller George Maragos claimed that Mangano knew about this, but refused to alert the seniors about the expiration anyway.

You may be paying more property taxes than necessary.  Contact the experience tax grievance lawyers at The Property Tax Grievance Law Practice of Akiva Shapiro, Esq, PLLC to file a property tax grievance.  Use our online retainer agreement or call 516-500-1TAX (516-500-1829) for more information.

Nassau County Residents Given Extra Time to File Tax Grievance

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has announced that, in an effort to allow taxpayers an opportunity to make sure ensure the accuracy of their home’s or business’s assessed value, residents will be given until March 10 to grieve their property taxes. The original deadline was March 1.

Sixty-one percent of Nassau County’s residential and commercial property owners who have appealed their assessments over the last seven years have seen an average increase of approximately five percent to their tax bills, according to Newsday. The other thirty-nine percent who chose not to appeal have seen their average tax bill go up by approximately thirty-six percent.

Mangano adopted extensive tax reforms shortly after taking office in 2010. In an overall effort to save money on the amount of tax refunds being paid, Nassau County settled a record number of grievances. As a result, property owners who filed appeals received significant tax reductions. Mangano argued that the only way to reform the assessment system is to change state law so that Nassau would no longer refund tax dollars for local governments, including schools — the largest portion of a homeowner’s tax bill. He stated that, while schools and governments still collect this money, the county is responsible for paying it out despite the fact that the county has not received any tax refund money at all.

Some residents argued that Mangano expedited these settlements en masse to avoid taking responsibility for the flaws in the existing assessment system. Other residents believe that homeowners should not be responsible for fixing their own assessments, and that the government should assess properties correctly in the first place. Legislative Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams stated that, while it’s a good idea to offer Nassau residents an additional ten days to grieve their taxes, there will still be tens of thousands of overtaxed residents paying for a broken assessment system once the deadline has passed.

You may be paying more property taxes than necessary.  Contact the experience tax grievance lawyers at The Property Tax Grievance Law Practice of Akiva Shapiro, Esq, PLLC to file a property tax grievance.  Use our online retainer agreement or call 516-500-1TAX (516-500-1829) for more information.