Shortly after the results of the reassessment of homes and businesses in Nassau County were released in 2003-04, I witnessed one of the most disturbing things that have happened since I arrived in Herricks. In many ways it was one of the most disturbing things I have witnessed in my career. A very elderly gentleman, a long-time resident of Herricks, came by the administrative offices seeking an explanation for the reassessment on his home. While we were unable to explain the reassessment since it had been conducted by Nassau County (rather than the school district), what had happened was quite clear. The value of his house had been increased by more than 100% and, consequently, his projected tax bill had been increased by more than 100%.

While one can argue that homes such as his had been under- assessed for many years and that, consequently, he had paid relatively lower taxes as compared with many of his neighbors, the abrupt nature of the decision and the consequences for someone his age seemed brutal. The rationale for the reassessment was that it would bring greater equity and fairness to the property tax system in Nassau County. Whether that first reassessment and subsequent reassessments have, in fact, achieved the goal of equity, has been hotly debated, but that was the stated objective.

I was reminded of this situation again by an article in the Dec. 31, 2006 Real Estate section of The New York Times. The article was entitled The Condo and Co-op Tax Bargain. The article referred to a series of articles in which The New York Times had looked at vagaries of New York real estate tax laws in Dec. 2005. Those articles had specifically referred to the ". . . uncommonly low taxes paid at 720 Park Avenue," finding ". . . that some owners of small two-family brick and shingle houses near Kennedy Airport paid three times the tax rate as their Park Avenue peers." The writer noted that during the reassessment of property in New York City last year property tax assessments across the city rose by more than 9 percent, while "the official market value of the building (720 Park Avenue) and the tax burden on it were cut by 12 percent." The City's reassessment in 2006 placed the market value of the 17-story building at $22.5 million. The article contrasted this with the fact that one apartment on the seventh floor had just sold for $20 million, nearly the same value placed almost simultaneously on the entire building by the City's Finance Department. At the selling price, the value of the apartment works out to about $3,400 per square foot, many times the $130 per square foot market value for the apartment estimated by the city.

The Dec. 31 article goes on to explain the various laws and rules regarding one to three family houses, rental apartments and coops and condos. From the article it seemed that the City assessors had, in fact, applied current laws appropriately.

Applying current laws appropriately, however, does not necessarily equal fairness and equity. Governor Spitzer and the state legislature clearly have many challenges awaiting them. One of the foremost of these should be rationalizing a legal system governing real estate assessment and property taxes which forces a 96-year-old gentleman to pay a 100 percent increase in his property taxes in the name of creating greater equity in Nassau County while, at the same time, allowing the assessment of taxes in New York City which seem to be moving in exactly the opposite direction.