The nefarious hacking of Suffolk County’s primary computer system this Summer has led to a waterfall of governmental headaches affecting nearly every corner of County government from payment processing to court cases. It has revealed a bonanza of governmental shortfalls for our local media to report.
Perhaps the only area seemingly unaffected is the collection of real estate taxes from long-suffering taxpayers who pay some of the highest taxes in the State. Now it appears those taxpayers lucky enough to reduce their tax burden via a successful property tax challenge will need to suffer again because the crippled computer system will not be able to keep up with court-ordered refund checks for the foreseeable future.
Considering the fact that Suffolk County was already taking nine to fifteen months to issue property tax refunds before the computer hack, perhaps this a perfect case of “never let a good crisis go to waste.” Under the old system delays were caused, at least in part, by a complicated and antiquated paper system of communication and verification between the County, the Courts and individual Town Assessors. Now that they need to rebuild the computer system to guard against future hacks, the Comptroller should not miss the opportunity to modernize and streamline the system going forward to make sure refund money is returned to its rightful owner in a more-timely fashion.
Thank you to Farrell Fritz partner Will Meyer for this week’s Tax Tracker post.
Article
The nefarious hacking of Suffolk County’s primary computer system this Summer has led to a waterfall of governmental headaches affecting nearly every corner of County government from payment processing to court cases. It has revealed a bonanza of governmental shortfalls for our local media to report.
Perhaps the only area seemingly unaffected is the collection of real estate taxes from long-suffering taxpayers who pay some of the highest taxes in the State. Now it appears those taxpayers lucky enough to reduce their tax burden via a successful property tax challenge will need to suffer again because the crippled computer system will not be able to keep up with court-ordered refund checks for the foreseeable future.
As reported in Newsday Media Group.
Considering the fact that Suffolk County was already taking nine to fifteen months to issue property tax refunds before the computer hack, perhaps this a perfect case of “never let a good crisis go to waste.” Under the old system delays were caused, at least in part, by a complicated and antiquated paper system of communication and verification between the County, the Courts and individual Town Assessors. Now that they need to rebuild the computer system to guard against future hacks, the Comptroller should not miss the opportunity to modernize and streamline the system going forward to make sure refund money is returned to its rightful owner in a more-timely fashion.
Thank you to Farrell Fritz partner Will Meyer for this week’s Tax Tracker post.