A recent village wide property value reassessment in the Village of Great Neck caused confusion after a 21 percent decrease in the tax roll caused some residents to find double-digit increases on their village tax bill.
The confusion was increased by incorrect tax information that was sent to every resident in their tax bills. The total levy for the village general tax was listed on village tax bills as $6.95 million with a 39 percent increase when the correct levy was $5.63 million with a 9.5 percent increase. The village sewer fee was listed as $1.5 million with no change from last year rather than $1.32 million with a 15 percent decrease.
Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman acknowledged the errors on the tax bills.
I went ballistic when I heard there was a mistake in every one of our tax bills,” Kreitzman said. “That was just wrong, but it did not effect the total tax bill.”
But Kreitzman defended the increases that some residents received.
If a home’s assessed value did not go down by the average of 21 percent, then “you automatically paid a little bit more in tax,” he said. “If your taxes went up, someone else’s taxes went down by an equal amount.”
Kreitzman said he owes 22 percent more this year, but the village taxes are only a small portion of a homeowner’s total property tax bill.
“You are getting a lot for your 15 percent,” he said. “That provides you with all of your basic services, garbage, roads, lighting on the streets, the building dept. All of that stuff is covered by your village taxes. What does the county provide for its taxes?”
Kreitzman said homeowners who are paying more this year were undercharged in previous years, and the reassessment fixed an unfair valuation system.
“We didn’t believe that our village assessments were correct, and under the law you’re not allowed to correct individual assessments,” he said. “You have to correct them all.”
That is exactly what village officials did, with the aid of consulting firm in a year-long process whose end product was certified by the New York State Office of Real Property Tax Services.
Previously, individual assessments could only be done with a new home was built or after an addition, which Kreitzman said lead to vast inequities in assessed value, and a relentless stream of tax certiorari, which the reassessment should reduce.
“If one guy was smart enough to take advantage of state law and challenged his evaluation, but the guy next door didn’t, it is not fair,” he said. “We wanted to come up with something that is fair.”
In addition to changes in assessment, residents who use sewer services from the Village of Great Neck received a 3.8 percent change in village taxes and customers of the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District received a 9.5 percent increase.
Paul Sundick, a filmmaker who grew up on the peninsula and purchased his parent’s home in 1995, he did not think the changes were fair.
Sundick saw his village taxes increase 22.6 percent, a nearly $600 increase over last year. His home’s assessed value only increased 2.6 percent since 2010.
“I just saved $800 on something on my home I managed to do myself,” he said. “Now I have to give it back to the village.”
Sundick said enjoys living in Great Neck, but plans to enjoy a lower cost of living by moving south after his youngest child turns 18.
“There have been years where we felt like we were barely breaking even, just staying in the black enough to do whatever it is what want to do,” he said. “We never lived large. But we’ve always managed to do whatever we could do stay here, because there are wonderful schools and parks.”
The double-digit increase in some residents’ village taxes was first publicly identified by Village of Great Neck Clerk-Treasurer John Dominsky at a village board meeting on June 7. He reported that his village property taxes had gone up 30 percent before leaving in apparent disgust.
His comment prompted another meeting attendee to acknowledge a 30 percent increase in taxes. The unidentified resident said she had planned to grow old in her home, but rising taxes might make that impossible.
Kreitzman said every homeowner had the opportunity to challenge their assessment, and village officials did their best to retain exemptions
In addition to multiple notices to each residence, village trustees held a community meeting to explain the process, and offered one on one meetings with the consulting firm.
The reassessment gives village officials the opportunity to reevaluate village properties in the future, either village wide or in neighborhoods.
“If one area of the village become more valuable, we can reflect that,” he said. “We couldn’t before.”
Sundick questioned the equity of the new system that he said is charging more to homeowners who are less able to afford it.
“Since my house is worth so much money, let me buy groceries by chiseling off a few bricks,” he said. “What I’m suggesting is that those of us who had older houses probably paid less for the house. They don’t see this pattern. But I would like to see a list of the people who got this tax cut. You’re not going to see elderly people.”
He said it was people who overpaid for enormous houses in the 1980s and 1990s that saw a decrease on their tax bill.
“So I am supposed to feel better that someone buy who paid more for his house in the ‘80s is going to get a tax break?” he asked. “I really never considered myself under taxed. Either did my tax attorney.”
