Nassau County Residents Blast Property Tax Reassessment

MINEOLA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A five-hour heated public hearing didn't end until 12:18 a.m. on Thursday, as hundreds of outraged homeowners aired grievances about their changing property tax assessments.

But Nassau County administrators say the unfair, broken and frozen system must be fixed now, CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported.

Jeffrey Angelino's East Meadow home was assessed for $185,000.

It was just reassessed at $502,000.

"I told my wife, 'Listen, if my taxes go up to $15,000, I'm selling the house.' I said, 'You can come with me. If not, we'll get divorced,'" Angelino said.

Angelino was among 700 who stood in the cold on Wednesday night or were ushered into overflow rooms to air their indignation over Nassau's countywide reassessment that has produced property tax increases for 52 percent of the homeowners.

"I am outraged and frightened," one homeowner said.

"This system is ridiculous," another said.

"Reassessment is a mess," another added.

MORE: Nassau Residents Grill County Officials Over Dreaded Tax Reassessment

County Executive Laura Curran admitted it will be a bumpy ride as she tries to build an accurate roll of Nassau's 400,000 properties, which were frozen under the Ed Mangano administration dating to 2010, resulting in deep debt.

"I say to those seeing the sharp increases that you were played by the system as well," Curran said.

The Keenan family of New Hyde Park will see a jump of $500 a year, as their small Cape was reassessed from $399,000 to $636,000. They say that's quite unfair.

"They changed the percentage from .25 to .1, but the higher assessments really come back to higher taxes anyway," Patrick Keenan said.

To address individual concerns tax specialists have been deployed to satellite offices, including new ones in Lido Beach, Westbury and Roslyn.

So far, more than 4,000 have set appointments and adjustments are being made right now. More info on that can be found HERE.

"Over 40,000 property assessments will be changed based on the input from taxpayers that we received at the satellite offices," Nassau County Assessor David Moog said.

Perpetual grievers are seeing the biggest hikes, but those who did not grieve are paying too much -- 48 percent will see a decrease in taxes.

The Curran administration said hikes will be manageable if the state Legislature agrees to let the county spread out the changes over five years.

The Nassau County executive said just because your home may be worth a lot more, it will not necessarily be taxed any higher.