Republicans of the Nassau County Legislature introduced legislation on Tuesday requiring Nassau County Executive Laura Curran to release all electronic files involved in determining residents’ property values.
“It is a fundamental right of taxpayers to know how their assessment is calculated and how their taxes are determined,” said Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park).
He said that Curran’s administration and Nassau County Assessor David Moog have refused to provide residents information “to which they have every right” and now “the Legislature will force them to release this information.”
The electronic data requested includes formulas, algorithms, programs and materials used to calculate assessed home values.
Curran announced plans for a countywide reassessment last year after the tax roll had been frozen for nearly a decade. Newly assessed values will be reflected in the property taxes of county homeowners for the 2020-21 tax year.
Nicolello discussed the Curran’s administration’s recently stepping back from claims of the assessment formula being considered a “trade secret” which prohibited the formula’s release.
Lynbrook homeowner Dennis Duffy requested the formula from the county earlier this year and was told the formula was not subject to the Freedom of Information Law because it was a trade secret.
Duffy sued the county in state Supreme Court in April and received a response from the county stating “there was legitimate misunderstanding as to what was sought and whether or not the code could be disclosed,” according to court documents.
The county released the 239-page document to Duffy in late May, which Deputy County Attorney Andrew Scott said displays “the actual codes by which all of the preliminary assessments were established depending on the class of the property.”
“Stated differently, they are the algorithms for the reassessment,” he said.
However, Newsday reported last month that a group of county residents who are engaged in active litigation against the county said their data expert found that 14 lines of code necessary to calculate assessed property value were missing from the document.
Hempstead Tax Receiver Donald Clavin said the document could only be understood by a person with a “doctorate degree in computer statistics and programming” and urged Curran’s administration to explain how the formula works.
Nicolello said the legislation is expected to go before the county Legislature in July or August.
“It is time for the administration and Assessor Moog to stop playing politics with assessment and to stop hiding behind claims of ‘trade secrets’ and similar excuses,” he said.
