The Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees unanimously approved a law allowing it to override the state-mandated tax levy limit during a Tuesday night meeting.
The override, according to board members and the village attorney, Darnell Morrow, will not increase the property taxes for village residents unless there is a need to exceed the tax cap later on.
“Just to clarify for everyone, this is a local law to enable the village to exceed the tax cap should it need to at a later date,” Morrow said. “To do so, it would need to come back to the board for another public hearing.”
“This does not mean that the village is actually seeking to raise the taxes more than allowed by the state,” village Clerk-Treasurer Abraham Cohan said.
Deputy Mayor Bart Sobel, who led the meeting in the absence of Mayor Pedram Bral, said that this procedure is conducted by the village each year.
“This is almost a technicality we have to pass in order to have the ability to do so if we need to,” Sobel said. “Every year we do this, and [in the past five years] we have never exceeded it.”
In June 2011, the property tax cap was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to limit the annual growth of property taxes levied by local governments and school districts to either 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.
According to Cohan, the village’s tax levy in 2019 was just above $7.3 million compared with this fiscal year’s projected $7.55 million.
Despite Bral not being in attendance, the other four board members’ approval surpassed the 60 percent majority of the governing body required by the state to approve the change.
A public hearing was held, pursuant to local law, but no residents chose to speak or ask questions.
