Nassau County’s reliance on illegal real estate taxes to top its coffers has led a Jericho resident to file civil and criminal contempt motions against the county, which officials are seeking to dismiss.
In 2020, the state Supreme Court agreed with Jeffrey Falk, who reportedly challenged the $355 “tax map verification fee” after buying a home in 2016, arguing that the fees represented ” Illegal and unconstitutional taxation”. news daily. The fee is charged to verify the area, block and lot of the property.
In April, a state appeals court upheld that ruling, declaring the fees “exorbitant and inappropriate because they were collected for general revenue purposes and inconsistent with the county’s obligation to maintain its property registry,” Newsday reported. Nothing to do”.
Nassau County then lowered the fee to $270, prompting Falk to sue for contempt of court.
County officials filed a motion to dismiss, saying the court simply ruled that the county couldn’t collect the $355 fee, so it could charge less. $40 million of the county’s $4 billion annual budget comes from tax map charges.
Falk’s lawyers said that was incorrect and that the courts were challenging the fees because they were used as a source of general income.
In 2016, the county legislature raised the fee to $355. When it went into effect the following year, Nassau County Clerk Maureen O’Connell called it “immoral.”
read more
O’Connell told Newsday in May that her office relies on the Nassau County Land Index to verify the lot, block and lot numbers it has on file.
“It was a layoff, and that’s why the court said it was an illegal expense,” she told the publication.
— Harrison Connelly
