Center Moriches Taxpayers Community Discussion Forum

Thousands of property owners in Suffolk County filed challenges of their tax assessments by Tuesday's deadline, Tax Grievance Day, with Islip Town reporting the largest increase - 43 percent more filings than last year.

In three towns - Brookhaven, Islip and East Hampton - the increase averaged 35 percent, town assessors said. Riverhead, Southold and Southampton saw about the same numbers as last year.

Babylon actually saw fewer challenges, said Assessor Mike Bernard. "I don't get it," he said Tuesday night. "We didn't get what we braced ourselves for. I expected 10,000." Bernard estimated that 5,100 grievances had been filed, down from 8,100 in 2008.

As the deadline neared in Huntington, a town spokesman said officials expected a higher turnout than last year, "due to the economy and the increase in the number of companies offering to challenge assessments" on residents' behalf. Last year the town recorded about 6,000 residential appeals, the most ever, compared with 3,800 the year before.

Nassau County, where property owners filed such claims in January and February, experienced a 3 percent decrease over last year, according to Nassau Assessor Ted Jankowski Jr. Hundreds of this year's grievances were duplications of some cases filed last year but unresolved, according to town assessors. Property owners must file again to keep those claims alive, they said.

In Islip, Supervisor Phil Nolan said officials "expected to see an increase in grievances. People see their real estate values going down and naturally think their assessment's going to go down," but one doesn't always lead to the other.

"This is a very complex computation," he said. "We're going to take them one by one."

Jankowski said about 80 percent of the 107,565 filings in Nassau this year were done by firms representing property owners and about 72 percent were repeat filers.

At town halls across Suffolk County yesterday:

In Southold most of the grievances were dropped off by lawyers or grievance appeals services. The town assessor's office expected to finish the day with 1,100 to 1,200 grievances, about the same number as last year.

Shelter Island had 38 grievances filed by 2 p.m. and predicted fewer by closing time than last year's 77.

In Southampton, some people took the forms home once they registered as filing. John Russo, 37, of Sag Harbor, came to Grievance Day for the first time. "I want to make sure my grievance is heard," he said. "I don't mind paying taxes, but my neighbors are trying to sell, and their asking price is going down and down. . . . My assessment went up $200,000."

Southampton plans to notify property owners how their cases are resolved by June 26.

Southampton Assessor Ed Deyermond said that, based on past years, 5 percent to 10 percent of those filing grievances would get assessment reductions.