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Taxes to fall by $80K on Mill Neck home after reassessment

Jessica Parks

Howard and Diane Wohl of Mill Neck will see their property taxes drop by more than $80,000 under the countywide reassessment. 

Their 11,321-square-foot home sits on two parcels of land, which were together valued at $4.74 million on the 2017-18 assessment roll, according to Howard Wohl’s tax impact statements. Property taxes for the home that year amount to almost $109,000. 

On the 2020-21 tentative assessment roll, Wohl’s home value has been deflated by more than 50 percent to $1.81 million. A tax impact statement for the property estimates Wohl’s 2020-21 property taxes to be slashed to $26,361, less than a quarter of what they were in the 2017-18 tax year. 

A ladder report for the property — generated by an algorithm used by the county’s modeling software that illustrates the home components that make up its market value — projects Wohl’s home to be worth $4.9 million. A comparative sales report shows home sales that range from $3.05 million to $6.96 million. 

Zillow, a popular real estate website, estimates the home’s value to be $3.49 million. 

Efforts to reach the Wohls and the county Department of Assessment were unavailing.

The reassessment undertaken by Nassau County Executive Laura Curran is the first countywide assessment in Nassau in a decade. The county is required to collect a set amount of taxes, so those who were paying taxes on undervalued homes were shifting the tax burden on other property taxpayers in the county. 

Chris Boyle, the deputy director of communications for the Republican majority in the county Legislature, raised concerns over Wohl’s record of making large donations to Democratic politicians, including $5,500 in contributions to Curran’s election campaign. 

“How can residents trust the county executive’s error-riddled reassessment process when we see a glaring example of working-class Nassau taxpayers subsidizing the estate of a millionaire Democratic donor right in front of us?” Boyle said.  “How many more mansions are working-class residents subsidizing? The majority will investigate this question and others to ensure that your assessment came from a fair and accurate process.”

The Wohl property is situated in the Town of Oyster Bay. According to the property description on the county’s Land Records Viewer, the home has eight full bathrooms and two half bathrooms. There is a pool, attached garage and a recreation room. Neither Zillow nor the county’s website list the number of bedrooms in the home. 

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