A 94-year-old woman from Long Island has expressed her fury after her taxes skyrocketed when a county clerk accidentally declared her dead.
Ann Mazze’s school taxes increased from only $327.04 in 2020 to $4,773.48 in 2021.
Her general taxes also jumped from $2,637.10 in 2020 to $3,147.95.
Mazze first found out about the error when her mortgage increased by $800-a-month in February.
She was hit with the costly increase after officials removed Enhanced Star, a senior property tax benefit, after wrongful news of her death.
Officials also removed her veteran tax exemption, which she is entitled to as her late husband served in the military.
“They thought that I was dead. Do I look dead to you?” the elderly widow said in a press conference on Wednesday.
“I want this fixed. I want this fixed now so I can go on with my life.”
Speaking to Daily Mail, the 94-year-old said that she decided to go to the press after her pleas for help have been ignored.
“We enquired several times in the assessment department, calling everybody we could think of – countless phone calls. But getting no results.”
A spokesperson for Nassau County, Michael Fricchione, issued a statement and said that Mazze will receive her refund.
“The taxpayer’s daughter was in contact with the Department of Assessment on April 22nd and corrections were made right away, along with a petition that will be approved by the legislature on Monday to refund the taxpayer,” he said.
Mazze said that she and her daughter estimate that they are owed $5,000 to $6,000.
Mazze’s daughter, Lori Goldman, believes that the assessor’s office made the mistake after she purchased the house from her mother in 2019.
“We’ve been going through this since February. We’ve received a letter from the bank with this huge increase, calling people. She’s upset. She’s actually a cancer survivor from last year and we are very fortunate that she’s well and we didn’t need this added stress. It’s just been really terrible,” she told ABC 7.
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