The question of reassessment is an important one for residents of our county and this letter is to help further explain how reassessment is beneficial to us as a county. In my previous letter I explained that aside from the unfairness, the main problem is that we have been required to borrow over $1 billion to compensate for funds lost through successful grievances by overassessed homeowners. But some homeowners feel that reassessment will greatly affect the amount of taxes residents of our area will have to pay.

Opponents of reassessment claim that if we have 100 percent reassessment, many of us will have to pay greatly increased taxes. They cite one person in Islip whose taxes increased 350 percent; but tax experts say that this was an extreme example of a severely undertaxed homeowner. First of all, the reassessment will not affect school taxes as much as county and town taxes, thus having its predominant effect basically on only 30 percent of our taxes. Second of all it is estimated that when reassessment takes place about 1/3 of the home owners will experience a modest decrease, 1/3 will have a modest increase and 1/3 will have no change in their taxes.

Each town has been assigned a residential assessment ratio (RAR) with a median of 3.17. Those at the median will have no change; those below will see an increase, and those above a decrease. West Hempstead's value is 3.3 and Elmont's is 3.26, so on the average homeowners there will have a decrease in assessment. Franklin Square's value is 3.06 so homeowners there will have only slight increases on the average. The predominant increase in taxes will take place in communities with the greatest underassessment - Garden City, Great Neck, Sands Point and Manhasset - where property values have had the greatest increases.

The point is that reassessment will not cause great changes in the taxes for most homeowners, but will greatly reduce the amount of money we have to borrow as a result of homeowners who are overassessed. The estimated cost of reassessment equals the amount the county borrows for just one year in successful tax grievances. In this case, the ACLU is fighting for all of us, and persons interested in more information should support and contact their office at 741-8520 or call the New Party of Long Island/Working Family Party at 294-3136.