Backdoor Tax Hikes

I just had a very interesting conversation with a man from Garden City yesterday. This man, a new and strong supporter of Ed Mangano for CE, had worked with Harvey Levinson, the last elected County Assessor in Nassau County in his 2003 election race. He made some good points that I want to share with you today.

Suozzi has raised taxes by almost 80%. But that isn't all. He raised it even more through the Assessor's Office. Levinson, at the behest of Suozzi, jacked the assessments up to unreal levels. Basically, there are two magic numbers. One's the value of your home. The other's the tax rate that NY state computes using the county fractional tax rate. Multiply the two together and you get the money you have to cut a check for. That's your tax bill.

There are two ways to raise taxes. One is to simply raise the rates. Suozzi did that by 80%. But it wasn't enough, even after the state wiped out the deficit of 2001. So, Mr. Suozzi called his political subsidiary Levinson in and said 'I need more money.' Levinson obliged.

He raised the first number, the hypothetical value of your home. He raised it to unreal levels that are laughable even by the 2006 Boom Years standard. This gentleman showed me a house that sold for $500,000 around the corner from him. Levinson had it assessed at almost $800,000. This gentleman had challenged his assessment 7 times.

Sound fair? It does explain why Suozzi has abolished the elected assessor's office. Now, the assessor works directly for him. Thaddeus Janikowski (I'm probably misspelling that name) can be fired if he doesn't raise enough money. Conspiracy? Maybe I'm crazy.

Or maybe I'm right and the only way we can fix this is to vote out Suozzi, get Ed Mangano elected and blow the system to smithereens and start from the beginning and Fix it.

By the way, this individual I spoke to had challenged his assessment 7 times on his own. He won all 7 without the use of counsel. But, if he had used a lawyer such one from the tax cert firm Mayer Suozzi, Mr. Suozzi's father would have taken at least a third. Sound fair?

Let's end this charade on November 3.