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News 12 Staff

LITAXING61B_2025-06-01-12-30-42

Welcome back to this special Taxing Long Island edition of Power and Politics. I'm Rich Barrabi. We just went through some of the challenges that come with living here on Long Island, but there are some solutions that can make it a little less taxing. One of them is a process that could save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. We want to be able to save money. Who doesn't, right? LaShawn Walker of Hempstead certainly isn't alone and looking for ways to cut back on costs. So when she bought her house 14 years ago, she started grieving her taxes each year, although she says she didn't have much success. Maybe the 1st 5 to 6 years I was here, I would do it every single year, kept getting declined but thought it was my right to continue to pursue it, um, and then probably around this. 7th or 8th year I was like I'm not doing this again. I'm not putting myself through this again. Anybody can use it now that doesn't mean anybody can file a good grievance. Belmore attorney Jeff Gold runs a Facebook page called Nassau Grieved your Tax Assessment Free. It has more than 40,000 followers. Gold and a team of moderators school Nassau residents on the best ways to file a grievance successfully, including how to find comparable sales in your area that can help to determine the true fair market value of your home. It can be done right on the county's website. To the county's credit, the Arrow system is so easy to use. In Suffolk, towns and villages handle assessments and grievances, and panels called the Board of Assessment Review make determinations on those challenges. Back in Nassau, LaShawn says even though she hasn't had much success challenging her assessment in the past, all of this talk of saving money has her thinking she'll give it another go. You never know, it's a possibility that it'll work out in your favor, so I am gonna do it next year. All right. Meanwhile, Ronanoba man's tax nightmare is over, and he's thanking us and the ts receiver of taxes for making it happen. I thought it wasn't gonna happen, but thank God it did. Nick D'Amico is a happy man after his tax bill has finally been corrected. Your correction did wind up coming through about an hour after, uh, um, I spoke to Rich from News 12. It makes my day. We first introduced you to Nick earlier this week. He's the 78 year old retiree from Rononoma who found a clerical error on his tax bill that was going to cost him more than $4000. Over the past few months, the work to get it fixed has been a lengthy and layered process. It involved multiple government agencies and offices, and it appeared that Nick would even be hit with. The penalty if he didn't pay the erroneous bill because of an impending filing deadline. But after we spoke with Nick and Isliptown receiver of taxes Andy Whitman, that quickly changed. End of the day everything worked out for Mr. Domingo and his bill was adjusted and he paid his second half taxes, which was the $385 after the adjustment was done. They'll process your payment along with your check. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. I'm glad it worked out for you. Thank you very much. Whitman says after our initial interview, the county expedited the approval of what's known as the correction of error that allowed the receiver's office to process the correction and save Nick a whole lot of cash. Again, money he never should have owed in the first place. I feel great. I'm just glad it's over and without you two guys helping Andy and you rich, uh. I'm sure you made it get done and, uh, it works and I'm, I'm glad that it's done, finally. And Nick says while he still prides himself on being independent, it sure was nice to get some help from some new friends. And it worked out. Thank you. Me too, big time. Definitely very happy for Nick. And there's also an effort to make homeownership an affordable reality for more people. The Uniondale Community Land Trust broke ground on a home that will be sold through a housing lottery for hundreds of thousands less than its estimated value. It's a shared equity model. They own the home. They're able to get it for a lower cost because the community, the land, they don't have to pay for it. It's an interesting concept. Applicants who want to buy the 2 story, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home will have to be able to afford a down payment, be a first time home buyer, and earn a certain income. Now, whether you're buying or selling a house, moving can be stressful and expensive and taxing, but there are ways you can save money and time. Newsto's Logan Crawford spoke to the experts to make relocating easier. Whether you're buying your first home or relocating for your job, moving can be stressful and expensive. Living on Long Island is not cheap. now that Jay Rhodes from Deer Park is an empty nester, he is leaving his home of 20 years to a smaller apartment in Bayshore. It's hard to sell. Um, there's a lot of memories here, but, uh. The whole process was very stressful. Slowly going through each room and getting things boxed up and donating what I didn't need, throwing out what couldn't be donated, unable to move all of his belongings, he decided to hire movers. This is a 3 bedroom house and it actually is going to storage and then to the second location, so you have about a $300 to $4000 move. Robert Esposito is the owner of Relocators. He says moving can be expensive, but there are some ways you can save when hiring a moving. Company Costs are about 43% more than they were just a few years ago. By law, moving companies have to give you an estimated price range. Usually it's by the hour. Esposito says some ways to save money take items off of the walls yourself, label your boxes so movers know exactly where they're going. have a game plan ahead of time, know where all your furniture is going to be set up. Rearranging can cost extra, and pack as much as. You can before the movers get there. All of this can save you time and money and reduce stress. A good mover will do as much or as little as you want, but you don't want to come find out that all that want that you had equals a lot more money. When hiring a moving company, check reviews, make sure they're responsive to your questions. The more time you give yourself, the less stressed you will be. The neck pain that I had last night seems to be dissipating from the stress. You know what else is really taxing and stressful? Driving. We Long Islanders spend nearly 100 hours a year sitting in traffic. That's according to a 2025 study by TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit. And still to come, it's your chance to sound off. We will hear directly from you about what makes living on Long Island so taxing. The special taxing Long Island edition of Power and Politics continues right after this.

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LITAXING61C_2025-06-01-12-39-58

Welcome back. We've covered some of the biggest issues that come with living on Long Island. We also went through some solutions. So now it's time to hear from you about what makes life on Long Island so taxing and how to fix it. We've received thousands of comments on our social media pages from you, the viewers, including some of these. Jim writes to us, great reporting. We've got a lot of comments like this. A lot of people have taken to this series because many of you know exactly the struggles every day like Grace who. $17,000 in property taxes criminal. New York is forcing people out of their homes. Deb writes, I'm on a fixed income and receive no exemptions from Brookhaven. My income is slightly over for exemptions. My property taxes of $12,000 are killing me. It is not so easy to always move when you have a family, and Valerie posted as a senior living on Long Island, most of my Social Security is going to school taxes, so not fair. Help Leno says this will only end with checks and balances, and with that would be two party rule. I don't know if we will ever have that in New York State like so many others. We are moving, don't want to. I just can't afford to live in New York anymore. We have one party rule in many of our towns as well, counties too. Justin asks, how about you find out what is done with the tax dollars from gambling and legalizing marijuana. The only thing I see the more important apartments, no one can afford. Justin, we're actually looking into that. You heard State Senator John Brooks mentioned it earlier. We will have a future edition of Taxing Long Island on that topic. Rich writes, Long Island should become its own state. Rich, it's been talked about before, and you're not the only one who said that, so maybe there'll be movement on that in the future. Bosch has given up on Long Island, writing, there are many other states that give you the same quality of life as Long Island at half the price, lived in Nassau County all my life, left last year, best thing I ever did. And lastly, Eric says we left Long Island in 21 and moved to East Tennessee and loving it, except for the pizza and bagels. See, that's why I could never leave Eric and a lot of other things about Long Island as well, but I get it with the prices, no doubt about it. For a list of all the stories we've covered in our Tai Long Island series just. Head to our website News Twelve.com, and every week we will continue to tackle the issues that bother you most and help you look for solutions to what's making life on Long Island so taxing. Watch News 12 Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at 5 a.m. for more of our Taxing Long Island series. That's all the time we have. We'll see you again right here next week for another edition of News Twelve's Power and Politics. I'm Rich Barravi. Have a great rest of your day.

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In this week's Power & Politics show, we're taking an in depth look at all the issues that are making life on Long Island so taxing and way to ease the burden. 

Power & Politics: Taxing Long Island

In this week's Power & Politics show, we're taking an in depth look at all the issues that are making life on Long Island so taxing and way to ease the burden.

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