Town sues county for tax money

Joe Nikic

Town of North Hempstead officials said Thursday the town would sue Nassau County after the county withheld $1.3 million of the town’s sales tax revenue to counteract Fashion Institute of Technology reimbursement costs for the 2004-05 school year.

“The town will be taking legal action against the county to stop any further withholding of sales tax that the town is due,” Town of North Hempstead Spokeswoman Carole Trottere said. 

Last month, town officials authorized litigation against the county in the event that it withheld a portion of the town’s sales tax revenue.

But after the county sent a letter to the town’s comptroller’s office on March 7 notifying that it withheld $1,273,496.76, town officials said they would seek a court order blocking the county from the claim.

Trottere said she believed the court would rule that the town was due its sales tax revenue in its entirety. 

The state requires that counties pay a portion of tuition for community college students attending schools in other counties.

In 2010, the county began asking for tuition reimbursements from the towns of North Hempstead and Hempstead, as well as the cities of Long Beach and Glen Cove.

Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth has said the county’s move to collect money from 2004 was “preposterous.”

FIT is a SUNY community college based in Manhattan and according to Newsday, Nassau and Suffolk counties pay about $10,000 per student in out-of-county fees.

Trottere said the county began taking some of the town’s sales tax revenue without asking, otherwise known as a “set off.”

In 2010, the town sued the county for taking the sales tax money, but in 2015, the state Court of Appeals ruled the county could use the “set off.”

During litigation, Trottere said, the Town of Hempstead found discrepancies in the amount it was being charged by the county.

This led to a second round of litigation that is still ongoing in which North Hempstead asked for an accounting of the claims to see how the amount of money was determined.

Trottere said the town has paid $4.5 million of the almost $5.8 million it has been charged by the county since 2010 through withheld sales tax revenue.

Last year, the county sent a letter to the town saying it intended to collect $5 million in reimbursement money for the school years between 2004 and 2009. 

Reach reporter Joe Nikic by e-mail at jnikic@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516.307.1045 x203. Also follow us on Twitter @joenikic and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.

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