I believe the present way of paying for all our services: police, fire, schools, highways, streets, sanitation, etc., through property taxes is definitely unfair. Too many residents on Long Island are denied the privilege of helping to pay for all these services. The proof lies in the fact that thousands of homeowners are challenging their assessment and winning reductions to the tune of $1 billion plus. We, the county, have been forced to borrow to satisfy those judgments, with thousands more waiting to get reductions. I have yet to hear of a case where a homeowner came forward saying I'd like to pay more because my assessment is too low. I don't believe there is any bias intended toward the poor or minorities. It's simply a matter of geographics. For instance, if for whatever reason, some rich people decided that they would like to settle in the towns and villages with an ethnic and poor majority population, the real estate prices would go up, some homeowners would make a lot of money by selling their homes, others would be told their properties are worth a lot me now but the taxes are still the same. Will they now volunteer to pay more, even though, their economic circumstances are the same?

My suggestion is: Do away with property taxes altogether and substitute a combination of taxes like an income tax surcharge, sales tax hike on the state level, cigarette and alcohol tax, the so-called nuisance taxes, etc. Too many residents are not paying their fair share now.

If we were to go to full market value assessment, the initial cost would be in the millions and it would have to be done over again every two or three years at more millions. Even so it would still be the homeowners who will have to pay for everything. We'd be told by someone how much our houses are worth and asked to pay taxes accordingly whether we can afford it or not. If we don't, we can lose our homes.

Matt Schlechter