As The Mass Exodus Begins in Suffolk County With Rising Foreclosures, Tax Liens and Sheriff Sales.....Homeowners Have Few Options for Recourse

Did you know that there are over 9,000 foreclosures in Suffolk County for 2014 mostly made up of tax liens or auctions?http://www.zillow.com/homes/Su... and home values have been falling steadily 5-6%/year since 2007http://www.zillow.com/suffolk-... while your property taxes have been rising at a rate of 5-6%/year. Currently Suffolk county is ranked #12 in nation for property tax out of 1,824 counties nationwide. Median tax is $7,010 http://governor.ny.gov/citizen...To make matters worse Suffolk Court has over 40,000 tax appeals for 2013 (SCAR) the high majority made up of the Town of Huntington (excluding Northport), which Huntington failed to settle out of court costing taxpayers thousands in court costs and overtime.

Also, did you know that if LIPA was to win their tax appeal against Huntington, Northport would be penalized the most?http://www.huntingtonny.gov/co... “60% increase in Northport–East Northport school taxes”. So Northport residences enjoy subsidized property taxes from you and I plus we pay the premiums through our electric bill.

Furthermore, did you know that there are over (70) employees currently employed in Huntington making over $100,000/year (go to website type in Huntington)?http://seethroughny.net/towns/ many making what they made when they retired http://seethroughny.net/index.... costing taxpayers $16,226,415 in pensions, $52,223,417 in salaries and $39,475,503 in health benefits. Total of $91,698,920. That’s 48% of the $187,968,938 budget of which $109,806,705 is coming from property taxes http://www.huntingtonny.gov/fi... So in reality our property taxes are paying for all the salaries, pensions and benefits of the Town of Huntington.

Finally, so many tax lien foreclosures in some areas of the Town of Huntington vs only a handful in Northport:

Huntington Station - http://www.zillow.com/homes/Hu...

East Northport - http://www.zillow.com/homes/Ea...

Commack - http://www.zillow.com/homes/Co...

Huntington - http://www.zillow.com/homes/Hu...

Greenlawn - http://www.zillow.com/homes/Gr...

vs

Northport (18) - http://www.zillow.com/homes/No...

What do all these things have in common with the Town Assessor Roger Ramme who could seemingly be the highest paid public employee in Huntington with his overtime? Let me explain and then you’ll get the picture.

Right now Roger makes $129,327. With overtime he could very well add another $50,000 if you add in the billing per hour for fighting tax appeals at $100/hour for grievance applications and $200/hour for SCAR proceedings http://patch.com/new-york/nort...Who contributed to Frank Petrone’s reelection campaign? Roger Ramme who ”collected signatures for Acker and also donated to the campaign of Frank Petrone” http://thehuntingtonian.com/20...Why does Roger want to keep sucking the lifeblood out of LIPA (now PSE&G) keeping everyone’s electric rates one the highest in the nation? Because if he was to lose that fight his taxes in Northport would go from $5,118/year to over $9,000/year which is still a deal by today’s standards on Long Islandhttp://patch.com/new-york/nort... “Currently LIPA pays $74 MILLION/year in taxes (2012 - 13). The tax rate for the Northport-East Northport School District could increase by 57 percent. Currently, Northport has the lowest tax rate. This change would make Northport the highest of all eight Huntington school districts.After deducting the current Basic STAR savings of $829, the average homeowner in the Northport-East Northport School District would see their tax bill increase by an estimated $3,300 – from $5,700 to $9,000”. Why are tax foreclosures so high in other parts of Huntington and so low in Village of Northport? Roger Ramme wants it that way! He lives there because he only pays $5,118/year in taxes.

So in conclusion Roger Ramme wants to keep Huntington’s tax appeals high, his personal property taxes low, his income high w/overtime to keep tax foreclosures low in Northport. with low taxes that keeps Northport’s property values high while the rest of us in the Town of Huntington are left to fend for ourselves. Right?

Here’s where property values in Huntington have gone since 2008:

2009 - $44,457,886,973

2010 - $41,063,765,975

2011 - $37,990,136,136

2012 - $37,689,312,273

Where have taxes gone? Through the roof.

In reality the only thing he is sucking is the life blood out of the working class tax payers who don’t live in Northport, won’t be able to afford their property taxes when they retire and keeps LIPA subsidizing Northport. What’s wrong with this picture? Roger Ramme is the culprit and the criminal in this matter. He needs to be replaced before it’s too late. Call for his resignation. Join my group “Roll Back Our Tax” and in numbers we will prevail. Email me at rpaulenich@gmail.com.