The validity of a local law enacted by the Nassau County Legislature which shifts the responsibility for multi-year back payments for tax certiorari settlements from the county to school districts was recently upheld by Hon. Thomas A. Adams, Acting Nassau County Supreme Court Justice and Court of Claims judge, on January 4.

“As of now, the county guarantee remains repealed, and it is incumbent upon the school districts to make good on any successful tax certiorari challenges that are brought,” announced school district counsel Bonnie Gorham of Guercio & Guercio, LLP, at the January 18th meeting of the Garden City Board of Education. “That is something school districts will have to consider in the future in their budgeting process, the obligation to repay any successful tax certiorari suits.”

Last January, Garden City joined with more than 40 other Nassau school districts and the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association to proceed with litigation. The group is being represented by Hamburger, Maxson, Yaffe, Knauer & McNally, LLP. Gorham said the firm representing the groups is considering filing an appeal with the Appellate Division, Second Dept. Once filed, Gorham said it could take more than a year before a decision is rendered.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen said he has been in touch with the firm representing the school districts and attorneys have indicated that there are reasonable grounds for an appeal. “The narrowness of the judge’s ruling kind of bypasses the central argument, which is that the county didn’t have the authority to repeal the county guarantee in the way that it did,” Dr. Feirsen said.

Gorham added that one of the main arguments made on behalf of the districts was that the county guarantee is essentially a “quid pro quo” of Nassau County’s ability to make assessments. Nassau County has the power to assess, so along with that power is the obligation to make good on successful tax certiorari claims, according to Gorham. She said that was not addressed by the judge and therefore may be a valid ground for an appeal.

School Board President Colleen E. Foley said the county will now make the property assessments, have no responsibility for error and basically pass along the cost to school districts. “So there is no incentive to get it right,” she said.

School districts cannot pass down the cost of the tax certiorari settlements. Nassau County is only one of two counties statewide that performs property assessments countywide. In all other areas, assessments are conducted by the towns. Nassau County received special permission from the state in 1938 to have county-wide property assessment jurisdiction.

After permission was granted, the county assumed responsibility for paying certiorari suits. Over the years, it has accumulated much debt as the number and size of over assessment refunds has increased. Previous attempts in the past by the county to shift the burden on to school districts and towns have been denied by both the State Supreme Court and the Appellate Division.

Dr. Feirsen has estimated that a total of $80 million in tax certiorari settlements will have to be paid for annually by school districts, which would equal approximately an average cost of $1.4 million per district. School districts are legally allowed to establish a reserve for this reason. Garden City, like many others on Long Island, has never done so because the county has been responsible for tax certiorari payments.