Now government is stealing from government. Thieves. All of them.

Gee how much will this costs us taxpayers? Did any of these knuckleheads ask us the people if we wanted to sue? Oh that's right they're doing it for us with our money! How silly of me!

I doubt it will add much because the lawyers are probably already getting paid whether they work or not.

It was no secret that this was coming down the pike, and the last thing we as taxpayers need is to have our hard-earned dollars spent on a lawsuit. Paying for attorneys to represent us in a spitting contest against NIFA is not the way for Mr. Mangano to prove that he has a grip on our finances. He needs to put his pride to the side. Let NIFA take over and let the chips fall where they may. If our situation doesn't improve, then he can say "I told you so."

Who is the lawsuit meaning to protect? We the people or them the politicians? I wonder?

NIFA has the ability to raise property taxes, a move they as Democrats are promising. At least Mr. Mangano's budget has frozen my assessments for four years. My assessments increased 850% under the Democrats, who claimed most years never to have raised my taxes.

Every dollar I don't give to supporting the likes of the Nassau County Office of Minority Affairs, Economic Opportunity Commission, Coordinated Agency for Hispanic Americans, Constituent Affairs , Office for the Physically Challenged or a gaggle of other virtually useless entities duplicating federal services is a dollar I can spend raising my family.

This is not meant to be argumentative because maybe I missed something but I haven't seen anywhere where the NIFA has made any comment on raising taxes. Yes they have that ability under their mandate and the type of control they can exert but where does it say they will? Although there are some Democrats on this board as well as members of other parties it is my understanding that they will act in a fiduciary capacity regardless of their party affiliation.. That's how they got there. So we can't trust the elected officials, we can't trust the people of NIFA; I guess we're screwed!

Say your prayers, Captain, and grieve your taxes, for the increases will surely come...

These are the same people that supported Suozzi's plan for a future 19% increase.

And to think the spark that blossomed liberty and America was because of taxation. Here we are 200+ years later taxed to death. My taxes are taxed.

What scares me the most is no one understands the prinicples involved- That an individual has a right to his own life, property and pursuit of happiness without having to support his neighbor or any cause of the moment, or worse programs he out right rejects morally. We are in trouble, not because our politicians act as they do, but because the people of America have lost the undertanding of Individual Rights, Freedom and Property Rights.

All one needs to do is read international news to see where governement control leads- to poverty.

Hold on people....because this blue ball at 23 degreees is going on 'Full Tilt" within 20 years.

-J

Claudia, your remarks mislead. Yes, an increase in assessed value by 850% is indeed different from a tax increase, but in practice it significantly raises the tax bill. So while Suozzi and you boast that taxes were frozen in 6 of 8 years, assessments were not, and the amount I paid increased 500% -- tens of thousands of dollars over eight years. Food out of my kids' mouths.

And I certainly know the difference between Town, School and County taxes. You fail to mention that Suozzi's annual assessment increases govern all taxes but those of the City of Long Beach. So the Democrats' reassessment raised my County, State, Town and School tax bills. Oh yea, in Long Beach, the Democratic City Council also raised my taxes 28% in one year.

You may mislead tenants and Section 8 voters to believe that taxes were not raised, but anyone paying a tax bill knows his payments at least tripled under Suozzi's tenure. And smarter tenants know their rent increases were greatly mandated by property tax and assessment increases.

Hey, people must have learned the truth -- as they came out in record numbers to boot the taxing Democrats to the curb.

The Nassau County Comptroller website lists Role of the Comptroller as;
Comptroller Maragos serves as the fiscal watchdog for Nassau County, which has a population of 1.3 million and annual budget of $2.6 billion.
http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/Comptroller/biography.html

On page 156 of the County document linked below, the Comptroller budget is detailed
http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/documents/budgetA2011PROPOSEDSUPPORTINGSCHEDULE.pdf

The 2009 salary for the “Secretary to Comptroller” was $ 52,754.
The 2010 salary for the “Secretary to Comptroller” was $ 72,100.
The 2011 salary for the “Secretary to Comptroller” is $ 109,375.

While he appears to be watching out for his secretary, I’m not sure he is serving his role as a “Fiscal Watchdog for Nassau County”.

Thanks for your offer to educate me on assessments. As owner of dozens of Nassau properties and am quite expert on assessments and the County property tax system. You are misinforming readers; attempting to convince them that annual arbitrary assessment increases by the Democrats had nothing to do with their oppressive tax bill increases.

You echo the Democrats' smoke and mirror assertions that County taxes were not increased in six of Suozzi's eight years. You don't say tax bills did not increase. You can't. They increased 500%.

You are playing games with words, and you know it. High taxes result from high spending. Increasing assessments every year is one way to take more taxes from me while telling people that you have not increased rates.

The jig is up. After eight years of tax AND assessment increases that cost me a quarter million dollars, for the first time I have no increases. Mangano duped me? He has agreed not to raise assessments for four years. Mine have even been lowered. To me that's a savings of maybe $30,000. Dupe me again.

If you like a bigger tax, why not write the County a check. But leave me out of it. My family as well as my tenants are tired of paying for the increased spending that you and your Democrats have imposed on this County.

If you're a taxpayer, you certainly don't look at your bills. Maybe you're a Democrat committeewoman or employee?

Civic participation is not what it used to be and we have no one to blame but ourselves. In the last election we were choosing a Governor and only 368,000 Nassau County residents cast a ballot. There are 1,000,000 people in Nassau over the age of 18.

A recent Island Trees school budget election averaged one vote per every three students, with Levittown School residents showing up at the rate of one vote for every two students. Even if every student came from a single parent home, which they don’t, there are a lot of residents not participating.

I believe we need to pay our Teachers a decent salary to prepare our children, but it seems to have got out of hand. There were 120 staff receiving $100K+ salaries in the Island Trees School District in the 2009 – 2010 school year. There were over 450 staff receiving $100K+ salaries in the Levittown School District in the 2009 – 2010 school year.

I also believe we need to pay our Police a decent salary to protect our children, but it seems to have got out of hand. Yesterday in that newspaper owned by that cable company, they reported almost half of the 2400 members of the Nassau County Police Department collected more than $150,000.00 in pay last year.

That same paper also reported yesterday that 1/3 of the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter employees collected more than $100,000.00 in pay last year (of course almost all were Kate cronies).

The deregulation that led to widespread abuse in the financial markets, leading to the latest economic bubble bursting, has and will continue to have devastating effects on most Town, County, State budgets. This will also add stress to an already strained Federal budget.

Hard choices are required. There are no quick and easy solutions and any political speech stating otherwise, is disingenuous at best.

Our children will be paying for our apathy … and probably our grandchildren.

With all this concern about taxes why are you/we paying for Clergy /Ministers who own private property . Real Property Law 460 grants exemptions of $1500 of assesssed value which in Nassau with .25% assessments comes out to thousands per property passed to you and me. Why does this continue??????? Do you like paying taxes for other people/

Do you really think taxing the clergy will solve the mess that we the taxpayers have voted for over and over again? These highly paid clergy who exist to help us, to consul us when we're troubled, who run food pantries and clothing drives for those in the community that are in need and are too embarassed to go anywhere else, who organize blood drives and generally try to help out the community more than we ourselves do, oh yes let's tax them! Amazing!!!!!

Solve the mess ? No. But is it fair to continue to let them pass thier tax on to you and me? You have to start somewhere to create fairness.
Your sarcasm is noted. Also note that many clothing drives, food pantries ,blood drives are NOT run by clergy. Following your logic, we should then give a tax exemption to the folks who run these worthwhile community services. Why stop there ? Why not nurses and policemen who serve the community? Sanitation workers and teachers too. Where should it end? The existing exemptions for Vol. Firefighters and Vets are well deserved for the disruption of their lives and the danger they face. The Clergy exemption is a relic of the past originating in the 19th century and should be eliminated

So the clergy that I work with to help fill their food pantry, the volunteers that make thousands of sandwiches and meals for the Mary Brennan Inn in Hempstead that feeds thousands of hungry people on the island doesn't really exist? The hundreds of volunteers that come out of churches and synagogues that donate their time, energy, and money, all organized by the high paid clergy, means nothing to you? Drive over to the Inn in Hempstead and see what people do for people you probably don't even notice that are all oragnaized and facilitated by these tax scofflaws! My church next week will have volunteers from the Mary Brennan Inn standing outside the doors after the service with soup pots asking for donations for the poor. I know, go tell them to stand on a street corner somewhere!

Sure it's a drop in the bucket, and it's a can of worms, but it illustrates the haphazard enforcement of assessment rules.

The clergy exemption is fraught with misuse and fraud. In Roosevelt, for example, thousands of self-proclaimed ministers have received exemptions on their home-churches-mosques-whatever-they-are and it has caused a substantial increase in others' taxes.

Here in Long Beach, at least one religious school/temple owns many two family houses that it rents to Section 8 tenants through a Long Beach broker. There's even a catering service and dog grooming outfit operating out of their exempt houses. Yep, they are all wholly exempt from property taxes. Now how is that allowed to happen?

Nobody's watching these abuses. And try reporting them -- your complaints fall on deaf ears. Calls, certified letters, complaints to the State -- all unanswered.

Why does nifa get grants when they are SLUM LORD!