Nassau County Legislator Norma Gonsalves joined with her fellow Legislators to announce their new plan to shield Nassau County residents from out-of-control property tax increases. The "Stabilization Plan" seeks to take a five-year hiatus from rising property taxes and return fiscal predictability to households.

As the Long Island housing market skyrocketed over the past few years, so did most residents' property values. Now, as the housing market plunges, somehow the property taxes are not following suit. The plan seeks to halt the yearly increases in home assessments for five years and apply only decreases to assessed values on homeowners' tax bills.

"The plan proposes to stop yearly increases in property assessments, while allowing for decreases as the market corrects itself. Residents' property assessment will not increase during the stabilization period, which is five years. This will be a welcome reprieve from the soaring increases we've witnessed since yearly reassessment began in 2001," said Gonsalves, adding that once the 5-year stabilization period ends, rises in property assessments, if any, shall be limited to the state-mandated level of 6 percent.

Though the county does not control school taxes, the county's rate of assessment is linked to how school taxes are calculated. "Once this Stabilization Plan takes effect, county property assessments will be steadied and school taxes will become predictable again," said Gonsalves.

For example, if a 5 percent school budget was approved, residents may have seen a greater than 5 percent increase on their school tax bill once they received their tax bills. This is because an increase in the home's property assessment done by the Nassau County Assessor's Office between the school budget vote and the calculation of taxes disproportionately alters the percentage of the increase.

"The process has become overly complicated and burdensome, and it has confused many residents. The new Stabilization Plan will return predictability back to the calculation of school taxes by stabilizing assessments," said Gonsalves. In addition, the constant reassessment also had the unintended consequence of shifting a greater portion of the tax burden off commercial property onto residential property.

Gonsalves and her colleagues have made previous attempts to introduce tax relief legislation, including a Tax Freeze introduced in March 2007 and gasoline tax cuts introduced in 2007 and 2008. They also presented a petition to the Legislature signed by more than 45,000 Nassau County residents seeking to hold hearings on the property tax freeze. The Legislature's current Majority has consistently shut out all tax cuts and continues to search for additional revenue sources to keep spending more of taxpayers' money.

"The bottom line is that the cost of living here in Nassau County is increasing faster than incomes. If residents have to cut their spending then the county should, too. I believe there is enough room in the county's budget to accommodate this plan. Something must be done to provide relief to the hard-working residents of Nassau County before it's too late," stated Gonsalves.