A last-minute attempt to include a fund in the state budget that would pay for Nassau County assessment refunds was shot down by lawmakers on Friday.
The proposal would have created a fund specifically for Nassau County to pay the assessments refunds for owners of single-, two- and the three-family homes.
According to Newsday, the plan was backed by County Executive Laura Curran administration, which said that the fund would help limit the volatility of assessments and help to pay assessment refunds more fairly.
The legislation also would have banned assessment reductions for homes found to be overvalued by less than 5 percent.
Part of the reason the bill was not included in the state budget was that it was added late in the process.
A spokesman for state Sen. Elaine Phillips (R-Flower Hill) said that her office received the request late Thursday night, hours before voting was to begin on budget bills.
“As soon as Sen. Phillips found out about the proposal, she talked to Senate leadership and spoke out against it and ensured it wasn’t part of the final budget,” her spokesman Stephen Romano said.
But even if she did have more time to review it, Phillips said, she would not have supported it.
“It goes without saying that I am adamantly opposed to this proposal and that it is a direct assault on the hardworking taxpayers of Nassau County,” Phillips said in a statement.
The proposal drew its fair share of critics outside of Albany. Hempstead Town Receiver of Taxes Donald Clavin told Newsday that the fund “a license to steal” and a “money grab.”
Efforts to reach the Curran administration were unavailing.
The county Legislature approved funding last week to begin reassessing properties.
Curran said the goal was to have a tentative assessment roll ready in January 2019, which would be the first time the rolls have been unfrozen since 2011.
