County's Assessment Reform Team Suggests 'Taxpayer Bill of Rights'

Back in January, county executive Ed Mangano established the Nassau County Assessment Reform Team (ART) to help fix what he described as Nassau's flawed system, calling on county residents to identify the issues and offer up solutions.

Garden City's own Bob Orosz, a retiree who's lived in the village for almost 20 years, is one of the private citizens Mangano appointed to represent the interests of residential taxpayers on the team, which recently released its report.

Most team members are lawyers, real estate professionals and county officials, except Orosz. He's part of a growing senior population in Nassau – residents living on fixed incomes who can't afford the tax increases year after year.

Orosz said he's successfully challenged more than 10 county property tax assessments, winning a $125,000 reduction the first time around. "I've always been challenging the assessments. And through the years of doing it I found all kinds of inconsistencies," said Orosz.

His wealth of knowledge on the topic and his hard-pressed questions struck a chord with Mangano during his campaign, when Orosz took it upon himself to meet with him.

"I sat down with Mr. Mangano and showed him what I had and he got very interested. When he became county executive he remembered me and thought I had a lot of information to give and present, and a lot of good ideas," Orosz said. 

"Seniors are probably the biggest percentage population here on Long Island and we're being buried," Orosz said of his intention to help everyone in Nassau. "I'm on the team to make it better for all of us ... I just want to make it plain, I want to make it simple … I want to level the playing field."

According to the report's preliminary statement, members "share much of the frustration with the general public concerning the residential assessment policies of the county as well as the high tax rates burdening our community."

The report addresses problems residential taxpayers currently face with the assessment system and provides solutions. As stated in the report, residential ART members recommend the county consider implementing the following:

• Shift resources dedicated for residential property appeals from the Department of Assessment (DOA) to review residential cases at the Assessment Review Commission (ARC) stage
• Adopt a fair and balanced methodology of resolving Level of Assessment (LOA) issues on an annual basis prior to the finalization of the tax roll
• Make effective use of the existing system so that cases are resolved prior to the overpayment of taxes (i.e., prior to incurring a refund event). ARC's mandate should be to review all residential grievances and grant reductions when warranted.
• Review internal productivity and management and consider outsourcing aspects of the review process so that permanent staff increases and overhead are not necessary
• The DOA must balance its function at Small Claims Assessment Review (SCAR) proceedings of defending accurate assessments while participating in hearings so that taxpayers with meritorious claims receive "substantial justice"
• Improve and emphasize transparency while advancing  customer service and the county's "IT" Department
• Refrain from imposing rules and regulations and passing anti-taxpayer legislation as a means of circumventing taxpayer review of assessments 
• Nassau County create a plan to extinguish accumulated refund debt and require that annual refunds be factored into the next ensuing budget after such refunds are paid
• Adopt a "Taxpayer Bill of Rights"

The following residential members dealt with residential properties: William Wise (chair), a trustee and the commissioner of claims for the Village of Westbury; Shalom Maidenbaum, Esq., a founding and managing partner of Rosenfeld & Maidenbaum, LLP, who has concentrated his practice in tax certiorari and real estate transactions for the past 20 years; Orosz, a member of the Nassau Civic Association who has also volunteered his services to the Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute; and Paola Orsini, president of Re-Assessment & Evaluation Svcs. Inc., a residential property tax certiorari firm she formed in 1995.

These four members concluded that it is "unacceptable to continue to bond refunds and pass an ever-increasing county tax refund and interest debt to future generations."

"It should be unacceptable to place blame on the taxpayers and their representatives for exercising protected rights of assessment review," the report states. "In sum, the county already has systems in place that, if repaired and used properly, can reduce its refund liability and ensure fair and accurate assessments to the taxpayers of Nassau County."