Real Estate Tax Scandal in Nassau

[Will Denenberg Stand up?]

David Denenberg is a rare position today. The ARC Scandal places Mr. Denenberg in a position to distance himself from the Suozzi Administration and from Assessor Harvey Levinson and make some meaningful inquiries. Denenberg is asking the right questions. Newsday Reports that Legis. Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick), the committee's vice chairman, said he wants to know why nearly half of single-family residential challenges that are rejected by the Assessment Review Commission are then upheld in the county's Small Claims Assessment Review courts. I would suggest that Mr. Denenberg investigate the background of Mr. Glen Borin and question Liz Botwin, the former Chief Deputy County Attorney who was in charge of Real Estate Tax Assessment for the Nassau County Attorney's Office before moving onto the Comptroller's Office. Two hours is not enough time for this inquiry. This should be a full blown investigation, particularly in light of Mr. Levinson's attempt to intimidate the SCAR Hearing Officers to side with the government. It is still my belief that the problems with the ARC stem from the hiring of officials from NYC Government who fled a major tax and corruption scandal in the NYC Department of Finance which involved massive bribery and racketeering by NYC Employees whom these managers were supposedly watching. These managers hired by the Suozzi Administration brought thr particular brand of incompetence, neglect, and ethical pliability to Nassau government, where they merely rubberstamped the Suozzi Administration's pressure for enhanced revenue without an official tax hike after the first one.

I have written off Diane Yaturo, of course. She has thus far proven herself to be a Suozzi puppet. Denenberg, on the other hand, while scandal marred himself, is a lawyer and Cooper Union educated Engineer. He has a good mind, and some independence from Suozzi. Let's see if he does the right thing.

[Eminem]

Will the real Slim Denenberg please stand up, pleas stand up?

[zz top]

Amazing. Did you notice that the two architects of the ARC Mess left the Suozzi Administration. Liz Botwin works for Wtzman. Glenn Borin had better sense and moved onto Strook Strook & Levan, a prestigious white shoe law firm. Amazing how these two left NYC just before the s*** hit the fan with the bribery scandal in the NYC Department of Finance. And how they both hit the skids before the Harvey Levinson/ Real Estate Tax Assessment Blow up. Tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars of tax payer money was lost to the bribery scandal in NYC, which had been ongoing for two decades and cost the city at l $200M. Now, it is the regular homeowner who is getting fleeced by this obvious scheme by the Suozzi Administration in concert with Mr. Levinson to use overzealous assessment to boost tax rates on Long Island without a formal real estate property tax hike. All to justify Suozzi's bloated payroll used to bankroll his comic run for governor.

[Do Your Homework]

John Peguillan is described as the new chair of the ARC. His appointment by County Executive Suozzi was confirmed by the Legislature on on May 9, 2007. Who is this man? What are his credentials? Is he an attorney? Is he a licensed real estate appraiser with the NY State Department of State? Is he a Real Estate Broker. I could not find his name on any of the appropriate government websites for those licenses. I find this disturbing. If someone can supply the professional license that this man holds to perform this job, along with a license number for verification, this would be beneficial. Otherwise, the legislature must take a serious look into who they place in this sensitive job. Goodness knows that the NYC lawyer crowd that ran this operation apparently ran it into the ground, without any concern for taxpayer due process. And the elected Tax Assessor is acting like a Nazi, trying to coerce independent hearing officers to follow the government line, or face ethical and criminal investigation over "conflicts of interest." All we need now in Nassau County is a weak manager who does not have the professional credentials to restore respect to this agency and eliminate the obvious unfairness that overzealous assessment creates.

[Pequillan]

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BY RD J. EPSTN
rd.epstn@newsday.com

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May 16, 2007, 7:41 PM EDT

Legislators grilled Nassau Assessor Harvey Levinson Wednesday night they accused each other of culpability for the county's high property taxes.

Legis. Dennis Dunne (R-Levittown) said Levinson should investigate implementing a five-year freeze in residential property assessments, an idea Levinson quickly shot down.

"You want to give people relief, freeze taxes," Levinson said. "But when school tax levies go up six or nine percent, people will pay more taxes."

But Legis. Francis Becker (R-Lynbrook) responded by saying that with nearly a third of county homeowners challenging thr assessments each year, and Nassau accounting for more than 80 percent of the state's cases in small claims assessment review courts, something is wrong.

"The whole thing is a boondoggle," Becker said. "Why do 150,000 people think thr assessment is wrong? How can that be?"

Levinson blamed Nassau's high number of assessment challenges on high taxes and the small risk in challenging an assessment. There is no fee to challenge the case to the Assessment Review Commission, and a $30 charge to take the case to small claims assessment review.

"As long as the taxes are high and people have nothing to lose, those numbers will be high," he said.

Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick) said Levinson should make assessments and the challenge process easier for county homeowners to understand.

"They're challenging because they're confused and we're doing nothing to correct it," Denenberg said.

Levinson urged legislators to endorse his proposal to reform the small claims assessment review process.

Denenberg also challenged John Peguillan, the new Assessment Review Commission chairman, to settle commercial reassessment challenges before they reach State Supreme Court.

About 18,000 commercial reassessments were challenged last year, Peguillan said, with the commission reducing the assessments in about 4,000.

Peguillan said he could not say how successful the county was in defending the remaining 14,000 assessments in court.

Denenberg said if the county were to attempt to settle more of the 14,000 outstanding cases, it would save the county time and money.

"Maybe you should settle those cases sooner rather than later," he said.

[Inefficiency]

The more and more you hear about this stuff as it comes out, the more you wonder just what the people at ARC are getting paid to do (besides collect thr salaries without resolving cases).

[Borin's Boars]

It gets a lot worse. Ask Karl Kampe.

[interesting wrinkle]

* The Newsday report fails to mention one crucial thing. Denenberg made a very personal and pointed critique of Pequillan. Pequillan had direct supervisory responsibility over the commercial tax cases, and his inability to resolve these with 14,000 commercial reassessment cases without litigation. This is a staggering case load. Now you are taking the same putz who apparently couldn't handle the commercial cases, and placing him in charge of the residential cases as well, when an NYU Law Graduate proved unable to get the job done. Notice how nobody from the administration made an offer of proof with respect to Mr. Pequillan's licensure. Newsday nees to get on the ball. The injustices and inequities created by Suozzi, Levinson, Borin and Botwin will probably only be COMPOUNDED by Pequillan, whose demonstrated backlog of commercial cases does not inspire confidence in his ability to manage this function. If Mr. Epstn at Newsday has the guts to thoroughly research this story and buck the mighty Jimmy Klurfeld, he could earn himself a pulitizer on what has to be the biggest emerging scandal in Nassau County ever.









| Contact usRegister | Log inHow to advertiseCommunityCareer with usBuy photosArchives Long IslandNassau leaders point fingers over tax boom
BY RD J. EPSTN
rd.epstn@newsday.com

Email this story

Printer friendly format
May 16, 2007, 7:41 PM EDT

Legislators grilled Nassau Assessor Harvey Levinson Wednesday night they accused each other of culpability for the county's high property taxes.

Legis. Dennis Dunne (R-Levittown) said Levinson should investigate implementing a five-year freeze in residential property assessments, an idea Levinson quickly shot down.

"You want to give people relief, freeze taxes," Levinson said. "But when school tax levies go up six or nine percent, people will pay more taxes."

But Legis. Francis Becker (R-Lynbrook) responded by saying that with nearly a third of county homeowners challenging thr assessments each year, and Nassau accounting for more than 80 percent of the state's cases in small claims assessment review courts, something is wrong.

"The whole thing is a boondoggle," Becker said. "Why do 150,000 people think thr assessment is wrong? How can that be?"

Levinson blamed Nassau's high number of assessment challenges on high taxes and the small risk in challenging an assessment. There is no fee to challenge the case to the Assessment Review Commission, and a $30 charge to take the case to small claims assessment review.

"As long as the taxes are high and people have nothing to lose, those numbers will be high," he said.

Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick) said Levinson should make assessments and the challenge process easier for county homeowners to understand.

"They're challenging because they're confused and we're doing nothing to correct it," Denenberg said.

Levinson urged legislators to endorse his proposal to reform the small claims assessment review process.

Denenberg also challenged John Peguillan, the new Assessment Review Commission chairman, to settle commercial reassessment challenges before they reach State Supreme Court.

About 18,000 commercial reassessments were challenged last year, Peguillan said, with the commission reducing the assessments in about 4,000.

Peguillan said he could not say how successful the county was in defending the remaining 14,000 assessments in court.

Denenberg said if the county were to attempt to settle more of the 14,000 outstanding cases, it would save the county time and money.

"Maybe you should settle those cases sooner rather than later," he said.

[Dennis Dunne Loves..]

12 years and its time to retire him.........................

[poor stupid jclark]

12 years and its time to retire him.........................


Dennis Dunne stood up for the taxpayer against Suozzi and Harvey "the Creep" Levinson. What have you done for the past several years except bemoan your man-crush on your county legislator.

[Marijuana]

There are Nassau Republicans who cant stand a bonehead such as Dennis.

He makes Alex Rodriguez look like a Saint.

[retard jclark]

There are Nassau Republicans who cant stand a bonehead such as Dennis.

He makes Alex Rodriguez look like a Saint.


It took you two weeks to come up with that one Jclark. I know you love public transportation. I guess it's because you take the "special" bus to work.

[Triple]

Im glad we share the same bus to BOCES each and every morning.

Meet you in the rubber room.

[drive my car]

Im glad we share the same bus to BOCES each and every morning.

Meet you in the rubber room.

Actually, I drive to work. Any way, back on the subject, I wonder what JClark's position is on the reassessment? Is he going to be brave like Mr. Dunne and denounce Levinson and Suozzi, or is he going to just follow the party line. The ball is in your court buddy boy, stick to the topic, which is the scandalous handling of the reassessment by Nassau County Democratic officials. Where do you stand, Jackie Boy Clark? We know Mr. Dunne's position. Now what's yours.

[Celsius]

Dennis Dunne doesnt have an independent streak in his body - this is the same man who tried to challenge Kemp Hannon for his State Senate seat while battling prostate cancer. A first class lowlife in anybody's book. Dennis takes marching orders from Joe Mondello in Oyster Bay Cove.

Where was Dennis 5 years ago or even a decade ago denouncing the school and property taxes in his district - Always voting the party line - that shows real independence.


The only thing he's ever done is save his son's azz out of jail.

[Independent Dunne]

ther does Wink, Judy J, and the rest of the DMES. They are professional order takers just like Me-Je-as.....

[Salami]

We can thank Dorothy Goosby & her fellow TOH residents for starting the assessment mess in the first place way back in 1999.

[Thank u DOt]

U suck anyway

[clark the coward]

Dennis Dunne doesnt have an independent streak in his body - this is the same man who tried to challenge Kemp Hannon for his State Senate seat while battling prostate cancer. A first class lowlife in anybody's book. Dennis takes marching orders from Joe Mondello in Oyster Bay Cove.

Where was Dennis 5 years ago or even a decade ago denouncing the school and property taxes in his district - Always voting the party line - that shows real independence.


The only thing he's ever done is save his son's azz out of jail.


What is your stand on Reassessment Fool? Do you back Suozzi and the Democrats? Or do you stand on the right side with Dennis Dunne and the Republicans. Dunne is right, and you....well Mr. Clark... we don't know what you stand for.

[a-rod]

up your asses and mr clark's!