Thank you for your front-page coverage (March 8) of my recent community forum at the Massapequa Public Library. Solving the financial challenges facing Nassau County following years of fiscal mismanagement and inaction is a daunting challenge that's made a bit easier through the assistance of local media outlets like the Massapequan Observer that have helped us inform the public of the serious nature of the problems we face.

I would just like to correct one item in your otherwise fine article with respect to real estate tax refunds.

Assessing real estate correctly and reducing tax refund claims is critical to returning Nassau County to fiscal health. We've made major strides through initiating the full-value reassessment process that is now under way. But just reducing the overwhelming number of claims for commercial and residential real estate tax refunds is not enough, especially since this revenue-neutral process is designed to reallocate existing county taxes on a more equitable basis, not to increase the county's tax coffers.

We need changes to existing state legislation to put Nassau County's arcane and outdated real estate tax laws on the same footing as other municipalities in New York. Key among these is eliminating a provision of state law, unique to Nassau County, that holds school districts and towns harmless when it comes to real estate tax refunds. In my view, this is the single factor most responsible for dragging down our finances.

Unlike other assessing jurisdictions in the state, Nassau County must refund all tax money owed because of a successful tax assessment challenge, even though it collects only about 20 percent of the property tax payments. Of the nearly $1 billion in bonded debt outstanding for tax refunds, the county only collected $200 million. The balance went primarily to school districts.

Shifting the burden to pay such refunds to the school districts that originally collected the taxes is the inherently fair thing to do. The refunds are not equitably distributed among Nassau County school districts, and county taxpayers are being compelled to foot the bill for school districts rich in commercial property. While the preponderance of claims are filed on behalf of homeowners, the lion's share of the monies refunded go to commercial property owners. This system works to the benefit of taxpayers in school districts such as mine (Great Neck) and to the disadvantage of those in school districts with less commercial property, such as Massapequa and Plainedge.

Thanks again for covering my community forum and for affording me an opportunity to share some additional thoughts with your readers.

Howard S. Weitzman

Nassau County Comptroller