Nassau hearing officers yanked for possible conflicts

Oh, this is Rich, Harvey Levinson. A SCAR Hearing Officer who may also be a homeowner is not permitted to challenge her tax assessment because she does hearings as well? So, you don't like the results before these officers and you refer the cases for prosecution on criminal or legal ethical grounds. Harvey Levinson is proving himself to be a dangerous public official. And please.... nobody gets rich as a SCAR Hearing officer. All I see is an elected official picking on some small time lawyers who act as SCAR hearing officers. Levinson and Rice have hit a new low.... just when it was thought they couldn't possibly be worse.

About nothing...

Look at the assesment of every home on your block and you may find one home that has sustantialy lower assesment. And they have a larger plot, square footage, and more bathrooms. And the value just went even lower!

Wow, more Nassau County corruption! What a surprise. Reason #373 why I moved out of that dump.

Foolish

Refer the matter to the DA? That's a classic. Someone will have to show DA Rice where Nassau County is located.

My taxes have shot up from 11K to over 18K and I lost my grievance over my assesment. It's amazing that 7 out of 8 SCAR officials did get their assessments changed, and yet I was passed on after an 80% increase that has forced me to sell my home of 10 years. I smell a big law suit under this red carpet treatment of their own properties. A little naive, or just out right corrupt!!!!

....Anyone there surprised ?

Do I read right, they sat in judgment on their own assessments? Then ruled for themselves?

Holy s-h-i-t! Long Island is really f**ked up!

Good for Judge Marano! Finally, there is someone with integrity. Are any government officials honest anymore? Sure makes you wonder.

What a joke wrote:

Refer the matter to the DA? That's a classic. Someone will have to show DA Rice where Nassau County is located.

Why do you say this? What evidence do you have?

The whole assessment process is a joke. Its been over 5 months since I challenged my assessment, and I haven't heard a thing.

Hey Not Surprised...I can relate...I just bought my house and pay 40% more in taxes than my two neighbors and I have a smaller house.

why oh why are we reassessed every year and even after we recieved a decrease the year before? All this money wasted on these hearings and filings....only to pay more and more of these unaffordable taxes here in Nassau.

I moved out of Long Island in 1979 and have nearly a million $ in the bank for retirement now, my total Houston tax bill is $3K per year and we have no state tax.

When you live in the land of liberals you have to pay for it. Hillary insists that she knows how to better spend your money than you do! Hey you all voted for her. Time to reap the benefits now.

As long as these 7 didn't preside over their own cases, who the heck cares? I think it's ridiculous to call this a conflict of interest. What I don't get is why most of them who are attorneys didn't represent themselves? I challenged my assessment, and if I was presiding over other challenges and the firm that represented me was in front of me, it wouldn't sway me one way or the other. I would have already paid them for their services, I'd owe them nothing. I think Newsday must be starved for some scandal. This one is such a reach, it's not worth the ink.

Self Interest wrote:

Do I read right, they sat in judgment on their own assessments? Then ruled for themselves?

You misunderstood. These SCAR Officers are getting totally railroaded by Harvey Levinson and the media, perhaps maybe because they might actually be ruling in favor of the taxpayer. That is the real beef. Read carefully the allegation in the article:

"The potential conflict of interest arose from the seven hearing officers hiring representatives to challenge the assessments on their own homes, then failing to recuse themselves when those representatives appeared before them with other clients."

The SCAR Officers being looked at are people who challenged their own assessments by hiring a lawyer or one of those tax assessment companies for their own homes. The Officer, who has maybe twenty or so cases once every so often, didn't recuse himself when that representative appeared for someone else. There is a "potential" conflict because the officer might favor someone he hired to do his own personal work. There is no allegation that the Officers are deciding their own cases!

This is why Levinson is such a creep, and Newsday is such a rag for publishing this story. Attorneys are being dragged through the mud so that Harvey Levinson can look good. The man is a dishonorable menace, and a hypocrite, because this same newspaper reported that he allegedly abused his County Car privileges. Harvey is Ok, I guess, but some poor shlub lawyer who gets $15 per case is the bad guy.

Newsday ought to bow its head in shame on this story.

These SCAR Hearing Officers did nothing wrong. They did not rule on their own cases; the merely ruled on cases which were being prosecuted by the same tax abatement service they used after obtaining Court approval to do so. The bigger problem everybody should have is the Assessor's Office, which runs SCAR and ARC insisting an attorney handle 20 cases for $300 - $15 each, including holding a hearing and a written decision and expecting a fair hearing with a fair result. Reassessment has not worked because Levinson is a hack who is only out to bolster his political career - the taxpayers got the slime they voted for.

I have been changeling the tax bill for a decade now on commerical property and have spent thousands of dollars in legal fees and have not been given a hearing. Is this just an exercise in futilety to passify the over taxed small buisnesses in Nassau County. The problem is with the entire tax system and the most recent reassesment just fed the tax hungry bureaucats in the county as well as local school systems who suck up most of the tax dollars for their pigish benefits packages at the expense of all the tax payers in this county.

"Of the seven hearing officers suspended, six are attorneys..." Lawers = Legal Liars. Wow what a surprise.
"Three of the seven -- Ruth Kraft, Curt Campbell and Gregg Luckman -- said they were never told that presiding over cases involving their representative amounted to a conflict of interest." Are you kidding me!

My Father's was over-turned, I hope his comes under a review. His saving no where near the $26,800 to $269,200 these jubonees received.

Fire them all - rehire with some oversight.

At least Levensons doing his job!

It's a shame (sham) that Nassau Chief Administrative Judge Anthony Marano doesn't have someone looking at this prior to it being turned in. Is this guy Levinson the only guy working!