At Wednesday evening's meeting of the Mineola Board of Trustees, the board acted unanimously to reassess all the properties in the Village of Mineola. The move is seen as a cost-saving measure to stop the trend of an eroding village tax base and eventually end the problem of tax certiorari payments that have plagued the village budget.

The board acted fast in its decision, a major one for the village. It was only two weeks ago that Mayor Jack M. Martins announced the possibility of a reassessment as a way of adopting the Homestead Exemption, which will give the commercial properties and residential properties two separate tax rates - one for residential property owners and one for all other property owners - and will freeze the proportionality of the tax burden between residential property owners and commercial property owners at 50-50. This revaluation project will only apply to village tax since property owners pay county, town and school taxes based on the county's property assessments.

The village board has commissioned two firms to conduct the revaluation of village properties. They are Standard Evaluation Services and Michael Haberman Associates, both located in Mineola. Both firms were used in the revaluation of Nassau County. Standard Evaluation Services was also retained by the City of Glen Cove for its revaluation in 2001 and Michael Haberman Associates, a real estate appraisal firm, was retained by the Village of Russell Gardens, for their revaluation. The cost of the reassessment is expected to be between $450,000 and $500,000 and will most likely start next month and be completed by November 2007 with a new village tax roll in place by the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

At last Wednesday's public meeting, Mineola Village Attorney John Spellman, Matt Smith of Standard Evaluation Services and Michael Haberman of Haberman Associates made a presentation to the board outlining the project.

"I see this as win, win, win" said Spellman of the revaluation project.

According to the village attorney, the board decision to reassess village properties will allow the tax rate for the residents to be stabilized. In addition, the future reduction of assessed valuation will not hit the residential taxpayer, but instead will hit the commercial taxpayer and future tax certiorari settlements will eventually reduce and become extinct, according to Spellman.

Over the past 20 years, Mineola has seen an erosion of its commercial tax base. In 1990-91, the village had an assessed valuation of over $71 million. The budget for the 2007-2008 fiscal year that was passed by the board last month indicates that the village's assessed valuation is down to $52,372,330. According to Spellman, the loss of assessed valuation is primarily due to tax certiorari proceedings, which are protest petitions filed by taxpayers that claim that their property is over-assessed. When those cases are resolved, there is a refund and a reduction in assessed valuation.

In recent years, the village's tax certiorari claims have hit the $1 million mark with $1 million budgeted for them in the 2007-2008 budget. In addition, the loss of assessed valuation from the 2006-2007 budget, where it was $52,891,868, to the 2007-2008 budget, where it is $52,372,330, caused an $115,000 impact on the 2007-208 budget.

Spellman also points out that there has been a shift in the tax burden. In 1989-90, when the assessed valuation of the village was approximately $71 million, the residential portion of the village paid less than 40 percent of the tax burden and the commercial properties paid 60 percent. That proportion is now 50-50 with commercial properties and residential properties sharing the tax burden.

However, if the trend continues, there would not only be a reduction of $1 million to $2 million a year in assessed valuation, there would also continue to be a shift in the tax burden so that residential would eventually shoulder more than half of the tax burden.

The revaluation of the village properties would freeze the proportionality of the tax burden between residential and commercial properties so that both would pay half of the tax burden and the eventual reduction of tax certiorari claims because of a more accurate assessment will allow for a more stable assessed valuation.

Recently, the county conducted a complete reassessment that has left the village's role antiquated. Smith said after the reassessment of the village, the village should have a more accurate assessment. "When you have vast differences between the village role and the county role, it's a breeding ground for tax certiorari cases," Smith said.

Haberman explained that the process of reassessing the properties in the Village of Mineola will begin with obtaining Nassau County's 2008-2009 tentative assessment role and that data will be improved with more information. Among the items the Village of Mineola will have to make available is a list of all the building permits filed over the last 18 to 24 months.

Smith said photos will be taken from the street and data mailers will go out to every property owner asking him or her to confirm information.

Mayor Martins said he would not go forward unless the board voted unanimously for the reassessment. The board did vote to go ahead with the reassessment with the mayor, Deputy Mayor Larry Werther, Trustee John DaVanzo, Trustee Linda Fairgrieve and Trustee Paul Cusato all voted in favor of conducting the reassessment. The revaluation of village properties also received the support of village assessor Richard Maher.