Homeowner complaints push Nassau to adjust reassessments
Nassau County officials will adjust the values on more than 40,000 of the municipality’s 386,000 residential properties after hearing from thousands of homeowners about errors in their property tax assessments, Newsday reported. Homeowners were notified about the new values 60 days before they were to be included in the tentative assessment roll issued Jan. 2 and the new values will first be used in school tax bills slated for October 2020. County assessor David Moog said in a statement that it is normal to change reassessments. “Some of the changes are on individual parcels where other adjustments were made that affected blocks, or groups of properties,” Moog said. Assessment staff met with more than 4,000 taxpayers and got more than 14,000 calls and emails. The Nassau legislature’s Office of Budget Review also said that 75,000 homeowners in the county can expect to see their property taxes increase by more than 25 percent. [Newsday]
Suffolk County IDA plans to grant economic incentives to firm buying $5M Hauppauge building
The Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency plans to grant economic incentives to BOSS Facility Services in its $5 million bid to buy and renovate a roughly 31,000-square-foot building in Hauppauge, Long Island Business News reported. BOSS, a maintenance firm, had been working out of a 7,500-square-foot building in nearby Ronkonkoma. The company hopes the larger facility will allow it to tackle a larger portfolio of services. The IDA board voted unanimously to approve $443,000 in tax breaks along with a $403,000 reduction in property taxes over a decade, Newsday reported. “We are especially excited about how this move will enable us to establish a new training facility that will focus on creating employment opportunities for the residents of Suffolk County,” said a statement from BOSS president Keith Keingstein. [LIBN]
November’s median Long Island home prices tick up over 2017, but market uncertainty abounds
The median home price for Long Island last month was $457,500, representing a 5.2 percent increase over the same time last year, according to data put out by the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, which recently issued a similar report for October that includes numbers for Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties. Nassau closed November with a median home price of $525,000, a 7.8 percent increase over the $487,000 reported for November 2017. Suffolk ended November with a median price of $380,000, representing a 7 percent increase over November 2017. There were 16,483 houses for sale this past November, 11.2 percent more than the same time last year. Despite the increases, Long Island Business News reported that sales remained mostly flat, while Newsday noted that rising inventory could foreshadow a housing slowdown that is already affecting neighboring New York City. [MLSLI]
Altice gets $2.5M in tax breaks for $60M Bethpage renovation
Newsday reported that the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency has granted tax breaks to Altice USA, a telecommunications giant that in 2016 completed its acquisition of Cablevision Systems, for a $60 million renovation of its Bethpage office space. A unanimous vote by the agency’s board approved a sales tax exemption of up to $2.5 million for the company to purchase construction materials, equipment and other supplies for the project. Altice USA also got a 10-year deal to limit property tax increases. The company won’t have any increase in the first year, but will then receive a 1.84 percent increase each year for the next nine years, according to Newsday. Altice USA, which is the process of moving its headquarters to Long Island City, owns the Optimum cable service brand and unloaded its remaining stake in Newsday last August. [Newsday]
Babylon bans subdividing resi plots to curb dense developments
Village of Babylon officials have invoked a year-long moratorium on landowners subdividing large residential lots in an effort to curb more dense development, Newsday reported. The ban applies to new applications for parcels starting at 11,000 square feet, Babylon’s largest zoning category. Subdividing a lot lets people build a second home, thereby making streets denser, according to the outlet, which noted that no one expressed opposition to the proposed moratorium at a public hearing before a vote. Smaller parcels like those zoned at a minimum of 9,000 square feet can be split as long as they meet the requirements to do so and aren’t subject to the temporary ban. Newsday noted that Babylon officials will use the next year to evaluate whether or not they need to change zoning laws. [Newsday]