The Nassau County Legislature on Tuesday failed to override County Executive Laura Curran’s veto of legislation that Republicans said would make the assessment process more “fair and transparent.”
The override failed by a party-line vote of 10-8, GOP spokesman Christopher Boyle said, short of the 13 votes needed to override.
“While I am disappointed by the results of today’s vote, the Majority Caucus will continue to fight for the taxpayers of this Nassau County who are simply looking to understand the process and have their questions answered,” Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) said.
He continued, “While the county executive and Minority Caucus fight against our common-sense legislation that would have mandated the Department of Assessment answer the phone when constituents call among other things, we will continue to implement reforms that make this more fair and transparent for the residents of Nassau County.”
Christine Geed, a spokeswoman for the county executive, said in an emailed statement that the GOP majority did “absolutely nothing” to fix assessment discrepancies during Edward Mangano’s reign as county executive.
Geed said that a “flurry of useless” legislation proposed and passed by the majority is a textbook example of “politics first, taxpayers last.”
“Despite their sudden and disingenuous attention to assessment, they have failed to propose any legislation that would actually benefit taxpayers,” Geed said. “We want to thank the Minority in the Nassau County Legislature for protecting what is right for taxpayers and the significant progress we have made toward a more fair, accurate and equitable assessment roll.”
The six vetoed resolutions would have forced the county Department of Assessment to staff its phones with a human operator, mail updated tax impact statements, restrict private home inspections conducted by the department, require the county assessor to hold multiple public hearings throughout the county and mandate that the appointed county assessor reside in Nassau County.
Nassau County Assessor David Moog lives in New York City.
Curran has urged Republican legislators to take “real action” and pass the proposed five-year phase-in, which would spread property tax increases and decreases over five years.
The Taxpayer Protection Plan was approved by the state Legislature but requires ratification by the county Legislature to go into effect.
Republican legislators have said previously that they are reviewing the legislation that needs to be set in place before tax statements are prepared for October 2020.
