Great Neck Superintendent of Schools Thomas Dolan said this week that the district’s decision to join 40 other school district to file suit against Nassau County’s decision to end the county guarantee was based on both fairness and finances.
“We believe that the county has an obligation to continue to pay tax certiorari as they are the ones who are doing the assessing,” Dolan said. “If mistakes are made, the payment should come from the party that makes the mistake.”
Dolan said that ending the county guarantee could cost Great Neck schools up to $1 million per year and if Great Neck Public Schools were forced to fund the shortfall, it would mean less money for instruction or higher property taxes.
The school districts filed the lawsuit in Nassau County Supreme Court two weeks ago, following a vote by the Nassau County Legislature in November to change the county charter so that school districts would be responsible for covering their share of property tax settlements. Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano had sought the change to reduce the cost to the county of successful property tax challenges. Nassau County was the only county in the state to pay for the cost of these challenges for itself and the governments for whom they collected money.
Great Neck school district’s proposed budget for the 2011-12 school year is $193.3 million, a nearly 2 percent increase.
Dolan said the district already faces a 2 percent cap on spending imposed by Gov. Mario Cuomo and the loss of the county guarantee could cost the district .5 percent.
“I would like to see the status quo,” Dolan said. “That the county continues to make payments when they make errors in assessment and that we continue to be in the education business not the real estate business. We’re much better at education.”
If the guarantee were eliminated, districts would be responsible for back payments of multi-year tax certiorari settlements to the tune of $52 million, according to Richard Hamburger, an attorney representing the school districts.
Although there is still time for local legislators to change their mind, Dolan does not believe it will happen.
“You hear about cases that go on forever,” he said. “We hope for a quick determination, a quick positive determination.”
Former County Executive Thomas Suozzi tried unsuccessfully to challenge county guarantee in court. Under Suozzi’s administration in 2002, the county also sought relief from its obligation by lobbying state legislators, who enabled an extended time frame for sorting out tax grievances, giving the county one year and 30 days to resolve them.
The guarantee was established when the state Legislature enacted the Nassau County Administrative Code in 1948, empowering the county to make assessments, with the responsibility to make refunds. The code also shifted the responsibility to compensate for any deficiencies in tax collections from municipalities and villages to the county.
