Nassau County on Long Island says it is preparing to send some local homeowners $375 checks.
Will you get one? Is it a good thing? Where’s the rest of the money, and why are so many still being so grossly overcharged for their property taxes?
The Good
New direct payments of $375 are supposed to be sent out to some Nassau County homeowners. Even though it is a one time payment, and the county doesn’t have a very good record of sending out checks, or on time, many may feel like every extra dollar is a good thing right now. Especially, with all of the other expenses, inflation, new taxes and rising taxes this year.
Those that have filed their taxes, have claimed the property tax exemptions they are owed and earn up to $168,000 a year could start seeing checks around the beginning of November.
The Bad
Unfortunately, these promises of checks raise a lot more questions than they answer.
For example; where’s the rest of the money? These funds are supposedly coming from just around half of the $200M in funds the county has received from the federal government.
The County Executive says these checks are possible due to her administration’s good “financial discipline.” If financial management is so good, then many may ask why isn’t more being shared? Why has the county put off paying its own bills? Why are taxes being raised is the county actually already has a balanced budget and surplus of funds.
Shouldn’t taxes be going down instead?
After all, it’s no secret that many Long Islanders are already paying many thousands more on their property tax bills each year than they actually owe.
At least they have been transparent in that they are sending this money out just to get locals to spend it fast, and artificially and temporarily pump up economic figures. Sadly, that is also at a time of grossly inflated prices. That $375 might only get you what would have cost $200 last year.
The Ugly
There are people hurting financially out there. They have been taken advantage of by the local property tax system for too long. They should absolutely get $375.
Sadly, what’s really ugly here is that this is likely more of a smoke screen luring people into not claiming the much bigger tax breaks that they should be getting each year. It’s like a license to keep on taking advantage of residents and property owners.