Thursday, October 1, 2026
Paying off your mortgage is truly a cause for celebration. In Nassau County, however, that milestone comes with a hefty price tag, and it simply should not be that way.
Recently, one of my constituents walked into the county clerk’s office to file a Satisfaction of Mortgage document, and certify that the home equity loan on his Oceanside home had been paid in full. It was something that he and his family had been working toward since 1985.
The form is just two pages long, so the amount of labor required to enter it into the system should be minimal. Imagine his shock when he was told this simple ministerial task would cost him over $620. Specifically, it cost him $350.50 to file the document, and another $270 for a “tax map verification fee.”
Those aren’t service fees. They’re hidden taxes — and they are money grabs that the courts have deemed to be unlawful because they have no correlation to the services being provided.
The $350.50 filing charge includes a $300 “block fee” that Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Gregg Roth ruled excessive and unconstitutional on June 9, 2025. He ordered the county to correct this within 60 days. Despite the court order, the fee remains in place, and homeowners are still being unlawfully overcharged.
That’s why, on Feb. 18, I filed two pieces of legislation to correct this injustice. The first would bring Nassau County into compliance with the law by slashing the $350.50 filing cost to $50, creating parity with neighboring counties that charge between $50 and $60 for the same service. The second bill would cut the $270 tax map verification fee to $50, significantly reducing the impact of a fee that only Nassau and Suffolk counties charge in our region.
I’m grateful that my common-sense legislative package has the enthusiastic backing of the entire Democratic legislative delegation. Moreover, it’s a concept that County Clerk Maureen O’Connell — the elected official who has the most direct knowledge of this issue — has previously supported.
O’Connell has appeared before and written to the Legislature to oppose the excessive clerk filing fees, and correctly decried them as an undue fiscal burden on Nassau residents. In a 2017 Newsday interview, she called the attempt by the administration of then County Executive Ed Mangano to raise those fees to even more exorbitant heights “outrageous, punitive” and “immoral” and specifically questioned their legality. Mangano’s attempt was ultimately abandoned, but her point still stands.
For far too long, Republican officials have used fee increase gimmicks to prop up their budgets and create illusions of fiscal stability. These backdoor taxes are most harmful to the working- and middle-class families who are the foundation of our county and can least afford to absorb these costs — especially now.
Nassau County is already one of the most expensive places in America to live, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis is spiraling further out of control. While President Trump’s tariffs continue to increase prices on everyday essentials and his war in Iran is causing major spikes in gasoline and fuel costs, local government has a responsibility to do all it can to ease the financial burdens our residents face.
Cutting these outrageous fees would be an important first step. Moreover, it would provide a secondary benefit to all taxpayers by putting an immediate end to the spending of millions of dollars by the administration of County Executive Bruce Blakeman on outside counsel to defend and preserve these unjust, harmful fees.
My Democratic colleagues and I have provided the solution. All that is needed now is the will to act. I urge the Legislature’s presiding officer, Howard Kopel, and his Republican majority to bring these items before us so we can swiftly pass a legislative package that will deliver immediate relief to Nassau County property owners.
Debra Mulé, of Freeport, represents Nassau County’s 6th Legislative District and is the Legislature’s alternate deputy minority leader.
