Curran Calls on Legislature to Approve Bonding to Pay Outstanding Taxpayer Refunds
Mineola, NY - October 4, 2018 - Nassau County Executive Laura Curran plans to file a request with the Nassau County Legislature to approve bonding and pay more than $100 million in outstanding taxpayer refunds that are sitting in boxes at the offices of the Nassau County Assessment Review Commission (ARC).
“Nassau County owes thousands of residential and commercial property owners money, and it is time we pay them,” said Curran. “I am asking the Legislature to consider moving forward with bonding to permit these claims and settlements to be satisfied. This a critical step in addressing the fiscal mess created by the failed policies of the prior administration and fixing the county’s broken assessment system.”
County Executive Curran in June requested the state legislature to approve legislation raising the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) debt ceiling and permit bonding for as much as $400 million. These tax cert claims, settlements and refunds to taxpayers have been outstanding for years. The New York State Senate introduced the bill and requested a home-rule vote. The Nassau County Legislature, however, rejected the request and instead suggested the county could bond on its own.
Currently, there are 18,914 settlements which would be covered by the bonding. Of that number 10,275 are with the Assessment Review Commission (ARC) and another 8,639 are at the County Treasurer’s Office. The settlements were accepted from Dec. 1, 2015 through Dec. 31, 2016. The total cost is $101,514,180.
“Thousands of files are sitting in a room at ARC that represent unpaid taxpayer cert refunds,” said Curran. “We need bonding to satisfy those settlements, and we have to do it as soon as possible to move the county away from the past practice of the letting refund settlements just sit in boxes.”