Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray and Councilman Ed Ambrosino have announced a no-tax increase budget. Mayor Dan Petruccio and the village board have announced a no-tax increase budget. Why? Because they understand that property taxes have increased at an alarming rate in recent years. Not because they haven't been fiscally prudent, but because there has been an insidious hidden tax increase, year in and year out.

Nassau County's property reassessment system has become unduly complex and has been administered in a disingenuous fashion. Reassessments, calculated almost two years before they go into effect, are ridiculous, especially now that values are declining. Changes in the fraction of assessed value from 1.00 percent to 0.50 percent and now to 0.25 percent allow the assessor to skirt the law that limits yearly assessed valuation increases. Many property taxpayers then find out that their taxes have increased well beyond what they had anticipated due to continued "adjustments" to the reassessment process.

Republicans in the Nassau County Legislature have proposed a law to place a five-year freeze on increases in the assessed value of all property in Nassau County. The 2007 assessment roll would be frozen until 2013. During this time homeowners can have their assessment reduced by the county's ongoing appraisals, or by challenging their assessment or by selling their home, as an arm's-length transaction, at a price that is lower than their home's assessed value.

There's one problem. The majority Democrats in the County Legislature have refused to put this proposed law up for a vote. Why are the Democrats doing this? The three-year court-ordered annual reassessment period is over. Evidently the Democrats have not heard the complaints or seen the For-Sale signs. Are Democrats deaf and blind? Are Democrats dumb enough to continue to stonewall this legislation?

Edward W. Powers