NY mayor quits after hiking Long Island taxes 87%, $1.5M over antisemitism lawsuit

A Long Island suburb found itself suddenly without a mayor — or nearly any government at all — when almost all the town’s top officials resigned Thursday after raising property taxes 87%. 

Atlantic Beach’s longtime Mayor George Pappas abruptly stepped alongside his Deputy Mayor Charles Hammerman barely two months after causing a firestorm with a nearly 90% property tax hike — and just days after a nearly $1 million legal settlement was approved by the village board of trustees.

The massive payout was part of a federal discrimination lawsuit against the municipality by Chabad Lubavitch of the Beaches — a Jewish organization that purchased a former Capital One bank in 2021 to serve as a synagogue and community center they said is being antisemitically stonewalled by the local government. 

The resignations leave Atlantic Beach temporarily in the hands of just three trustees, but two of them, Patricia Beaumont and Nathan Etrog, are out the door next Monday when newly elected trustees Joseph B. Pierantoni and Laura Heller are sworn in.

The pair won their seats in last month’s village elections.

That means by next week, just one member of the current board — Barry Frohlinger — will remain in office, effectively leaving the village’s leadership in a state of near-collapse as residents demand answers over how things spiraled so quickly.

Calls for Pappas’ resignation have been brewing since May, when village officials blindsided homeowners with an 87% spike in property taxes — a move they blamed on decades of flawed assessment practices by Nassau County. 

But the county pushed back hard, and told The Post the village itself was at fault for improperly billing commercial properties for years, essentially linking the hike to a years-long administrative goof-up. 

“Nassau County is not responsible for the Village of Atlantic Beach budget or tax levy, nor do we calculate, bill, collect or distribute village taxes,” said County Assessor Joseph Adamo.

Some residents suspect the sky-high tax hike was less about assessment errors and more about covering the legal fees from the village’s bitter and expensive legal fight with the Chabad.

When village leaders first learned of the plan to build the Chabad, they swiftly moved to block it, launching eminent domain proceedings to seize the building for a village-run facility, leading to a lawsuit the village has largely been on the losing end of by the organization accusing officials of religious discrimination.

Earlier this week, the board quietly approved a $950,000 settlement with the Chabad on top of the more than $500,000 the village has already spent in legal fees — and within 48 hours, both the mayor and his deputy were gone.

“We shouldn’t be footing the bill for their antisemitism,” one resident fumed to the The Post. 

The village’s board did not respond to a request for comment.