Nassau County’s reliance on an unlawful real estate tax to fill its coffers led to a Jericho resident filing a civil and criminal contempt motion against it that officials are seeking to dismiss.
Jeffrey Falk challenged the $355 “tax map verification fee” after purchasing a home in 2016, and in 2020 the State Supreme Court agreed with him, finding that the fees represented an “unlawful and unconstitutional tax”, according to Newsday. The fees are charged to verify a property’s section, block and lot.
In April, a state appellate court upheld the ruling, declaring the fees were “excessive and improper, as they were exacted for general revenue purposes and not tied to the county’s obligation to maintain its property registry,” according to Newsday.
Nassau County then lowered the fee to $270, prompting Falk’s contempt filing.
County officials filed a motion to dismiss, arguing the courts had ruled only that the county can’t collect a $355 fee, allowing it to collect a lesser one. The county generates $40 million of its $4 billion annual budget from the tax map charges.
Falk’s lawyers say that’s not correct, saying the courts took issue with the fees because they were used as a source of general revenue.
The County Legislature increased the fee to $355 in 2016. When it took effect the following year, Nassau County Clerk Maureen O’Connell called it “immoral.”
Read more
Tri-State
New York construction company owner pleads guilty to filing false tax return
Development
National
Owner of sinking Stamford luxury lofts sues developer, city
Residential
Tri-State
Tyler Whitman takes The Agency to the Hamptons
O’Connell told Newsday in May that her office relies on the Nassau County Land Index to verify the section, block and lot numbers for its filings.
“It is a redundancy, and that’s why the court said it’s an illegal fee,” she told the publication.
— Harrison Connery