A year ago I wrote a piece regarding the inequities in the manner in which some properties are assessed and, therefore, taxed. Much of the data in the article was based on a series from The New York Times. On Feb. 3,, there was a follow up article in the Real Estate section of The New York Times. The inequities persist. The article gave two examples - the first was a house purchased by Ron Perlman (the billionaire who bought Revlon). His Manhattan townhouse is valued at $37.5 million. Whether that is a reasonable assessment or not, the property taxes for such a home in New York City should be around $347,000. However, due to a circuit breaker which limits increases in assessed value over time, the amount of tax increase, the taxes are likely to be no more than $213,000. Similarly, a Manhattan penthouse owned by Rupert Murdoch, purchased three years ago for $44 million, will probably only pay real estate taxes of about $55,000

Why is this important to the Herricks community? Two reasons. The first is that the circuit breaker which limits property tax increases in New York applies to homes in Nassau County as well. However, when homes in Nassau County were reassessed several years ago, the County found a way around these circuit breakers on a de facto basis by changing the percentage of full value from 2 percent to 1 percent, to 1/2 percent, to 1/4 percent. One might argue that the new system is fairer than what is happening in New York City, and was happening in Nassau County before reassessment. The changes in Nassau County caused enormous jumps in property taxes for senior citizens who bought their homes 40 or 50 years ago more often than it affected the super wealthy. What homeowners in Nassau County went through has not affected New York City. Since we are all part of New York State and since all of our finances are intertwined, it would seem only fair that all parts of the state follow the same system.

The second reason why this is relevant to the Herricks community is that this situation distorts the value of property used in various formulas and, therefore, the amount of state aid going to various communities. According to The New York Times, Mr. Perlman pays property taxes of about ". . . 57¢ for every $100 of market value, compared with $2 in Hempstead, $1.60 in Scarsdale, and $1 in Great Neck."

In January, Governor Spitzer created a task force, chaired by County Executive Suozzi, to look at the idea of a cap on property taxes. This is a highly complex issue. Whatever the merits of any plan proposed, however, it will be very difficult to put a fair system of caps in place if it is in any way - directly or indirectly - tied to an assessment system which is as flawed and inequitable as the one documented by The New York Times.