Provides for the assessment and review of assessments of real property in the county of Nassau

Summary of provisions

Section one of the bill amends subsection 6 of the Section 523-b of the Real Property Tax Law to (RPTL) permit the filing of administrative protests between July 1 and October 1.

Section two amends Section 706(2) of the RPTL to allow aggrieved parties to join by class in petitioning the Court for assessment and review.

Section three and four of the bill amend the Nassau County Administrative Code to change the taxable status date from January 1 to July 1 and to require that the Assessor complete the tentative tax roll by July 1.

Section five repeals Section 6-24.1 of the Nassau County Administrative Code, which allowed the Assessor to make changes in a completed tax roll, and replaces it with a provision for Property Tax Exemptions.

Section six provides for an effective date.

Justification

The proposed bill establishes July 1 as: (1) the new taxable status date within Nassau County; as well as (2) the publication date of the tentative assessment roll. Taxpayers will have from the publication of the tentative assessment roll on July 1 until October 1 to seek correction of the assessments. By reducing the time period of assessment review, the county tax bills will more accurately reflect the condition of the property and eliminate overlapping tax rolls and the confusion it has caused taxpayers. The previous dates provided for an overlap of review periods by as much as two (2) years. Reduction in assessment for a prior tax year may not have been recognized or carried forward on the subsequent tax year's assessment roll. Further, significant problems arose regarding the estimate of tax rates and transitional assessments in these special assessing units.

Section 706(2) of the RPTL is amended to allow petitioners within the same property class to join in a single petition and will make it less expensive initially for taxpayers to challenge assessed valuations, yet total fees shall remain the same.

Section 6-2.1 of Chapter 272 of the Laws of 1939 constituting the Nassau County Administrative Code would be amended to change the tax status date from the 2nd day of January to the first day of July each year to coincide with the new administrative review period. Section 6.9 of the Code shall be amended to require the publication of the tentative assessment roll on July 1.

The changes in law herein simplify the Nassau County Assessment Review System by reducing the total time period from initial posting through finalization of the assessment roll, from fifteen months (running from January through March of the following year), to nine months (running from July through March of the following year). As a result there will be only one tax roll open and under review at a time. These changes thus allow the taxpayers to better understand and exercise their rights, and to better insure that the assessment of their real property is correct.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on January 3, 2013 and shall expire and be deemed repealed June 30, 2016 and shall apply to assessment rolls that are prepared on the basis of taxable status dates on or after July 1, 2013. Notwithstanding the provisions of this act or any general, special, or local law to the contrary, the tentative assessment roll for the County of Nassau published in January, 2012, and prepared on the basis of a taxable status and valuation date of January 2, 2012, shall be the basis of the final assessment roll published on April 1, 2013. The provisions of section 624.1 of the Nassau County Assessment Code shall continue to apply to such roll. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this act, the amendments made by section two of this act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to real property with a taxable status date on or after January 2, 2011.