Residents of Long Island town fume after local government loses golf course lawsuit, now they’re stuck with a $7M bill

Residents of a town in Long Island have found themselves dealing with an incredibly high spike in bills (around 160%) after their local government lost a lawsuit leaving the suburb roughly $7 million in debt to a luxury golf course.

Those living in the town of Riverhead are fuming after being left to foot the expensive bill despite not being warned or even consulted by their local government. Around $6 million of the refunds the town owes comes from a lawsuit which the town lost against the Friar’s Head golf course according to an article from the New York Post.

Homeowners in the area have reported huge spikes in the cost of their bills with a 160% hike in the “New York State Real Property Tax Law.” Despite the huge rise in costs they were not informed prior about the change (not that it would have made such an increase acceptable in the first place).

Riverhead residents think they shouldn’t have to pay

It’s clear that nobody is happy about having to pay the expensive bills, “We shouldn’t have to suffer because of decisions made by a government agency,” resident Robert Olivella told the Post. Unfortunately U.S. citizens are probably used to paying for the bad decisions made by the government by now. He added, “I mean, someone else misbehaves and I’m the one who gets punished?” When you put it like that it doesn’t seem fair at all.

Another resident claimed that their bill increased from $150 last year, to around $400 this year while another questioned whether the local government avoided informing residents under the hope that nobody would notice.

Why the sudden increase?

The town and Friar’s Head golf course have been engaged in a feud for a long time, starting with the luxury golf course challenging the incredibly high assessment the town made of the 350-acre property back in 2008. Friar’s Head accused the town of overvaluing the club by millions and a judge agreed with the claim in 2019 meaning that Riverhead had been taxing the property on inflated values for years.

While the town appealed the decision in 2024 it lost once more leaving no option but to refund the taxes which, including interest, added up to over $6 million.

However, it seems that the local government has decided to pass the cost of that refund onto the residents despite them having no part in the mistake. “Everything’s more expensive and now we got an increase in our taxes, again, because of what [the government] did — it’s unfair — they’re f—ing us,” Olivella stated. Members of the community have already made it clear that they intend to challenge the inflated bills at the town’s next board meeting.