Why a Baiting Hollow Golf Club's Court Win Showed Up on Every Riverhead Tax Bill

When you buy a house in Baiting Hollow, the seller's most recent property tax bill tells you less than it seems to. That bill has a line labeled "New York State Real Property Tax Law," and across the Town of Riverhead that line went up about 160% in a single year. Most of the increase came from a court-ordered refund to Friar's Head, the private golf club on Sound Avenue in Baiting Hollow.

A tax bill like this records what one year of court decisions cost the town. It doesn't predict the next year. Another settlement is already on file, and nobody has calculated what it will add to the next bills.

The line that went from $2.78 million to $7.24 million

Riverhead was charged back about $7.24 million in tax refunds on 2025-26 bills, and roughly $6 million of that came from the Friar's Head case, according to county figures confirmed by Riverhead Assessor Laverne Tennenberg and reported by RiverheadLOCAL in April 2026. Here is how the town's tax certiorari debt line has moved over the past decade, using the town records cited in that report:

The line has swung up and down like this for more than ten years. A buyer who looked at a 2017-18 bill and a buyer who looked at a 2025-26 bill would have come away with very different ideas of what owning the same house costs, even if the town budget hardly changed in between.

How a refund to one owner gets split among everyone else

The chargeback is a mechanical process, and it explains why a lawsuit over a golf course ends up on a homeowner's bill on a cul-de-sac miles away.

1. A property owner files a grievance with the Board of Assessment Review. If that doesn't resolve it, the owner can take the case to state Supreme Court.
2. If the court lowers the assessment, or the town settles, the owner is due a refund for the years it overpaid.
3. Suffolk County calculates the final refund and pays it first.
4. Under the Suffolk County Tax Act, the county then charges that money back to Riverhead Town as a separate line on residents' tax bills.

The Friar's Head case covered tax years 2008-09 through 2014-15 on the 350-acre Sound Avenue property. In 2019, State Supreme Court Justice John J. Leo reduced the valuation and ordered overpayments refunded. In February 2024 the Appellate Division upheld that ruling. Part of the case was about how to value roughly 85 acres of vacant bluff land above Long Island Sound, and part was about which method should be used to value a golf course. The court required a method based on greens fees at public-access courses.

The refund for a decade-old dispute landed on the 2025-26 bills. Someone who bought in Baiting Hollow years after those tax years ended still helped pay for them.

Why Riverhead keeps losing these cases

Riverhead's last townwide reassessment was in 1980, when every property was put at 100% of market value. Tennenberg, who chairs the Riverhead Town Board of Assessors, wrote in a September 2026 column that the town's uniform percent of value is down to 7.73% this year.

The decline has picked up speed recently. These are the town's equalization rates as published by the Riverhead News-Review in August 2026:

The town's own Grievance Day fact sheet for the 2026/27 tax year lists 7.73% as the 2026 level of assessment, 8.16% as the 2025 final state equalization rate, and 7.03% as the 2026 residential assessment ratio.

The equalization rate falls when home prices rise quickly. Tennenberg said rising residential values after the pandemic pushed Riverhead's rate down, while commercial values didn't keep pace. "If the residential market is increasing 8% a year and the landlord is only getting a 3% increase in his rent every year, he's not seeing an appreciation of his income relative to the market," she told RiverheadLOCAL. That mismatch lets commercial owners argue they are overassessed.

Riverhead is especially exposed to this. The state has told Tennenberg that commercial property makes up a larger share of Riverhead's assessment roll than in any other Suffolk town. Of the 830 parcels with grievances filed for the 2025-26 tax year, 339 were commercial, 16 recreational, 11 industrial and 296 residential.

The fix only works in one direction. "We can't increase assessments, but we can decrease assessments," Tennenberg said, describing a town that reassesses one or two properties at a time, mostly downward, when cases reach court.

What is already settled and waiting to be billed

On August 18, 2026, a public court filing showed that Riverhead had agreed to cut United Riverhead Terminal's assessments by $6.66 million for tax years 2020-21 through 2026-27. As of the News-Review's August 26 report, Suffolk County had not yet calculated the refund. Councilman Kenneth Rothwell said the Town Board was looking at working with the county to extend the payment schedule so that "it is not a one-time hit."

Here is where things stand as of October 2026:

• United Riverhead Terminal: settled. The refund amount and whether it will be spread over several years are both still open.
• Friar's Head, later years: Traditional Links LLC, the club's owner, still has certiorari cases pending for tax years after 2014-15. In April the assessor said the town was trying to settle them rather than go to trial again.
• Other cases: dozens of commercial, industrial and income-producing properties have cases pending in state Supreme Court, many of them in the Route 58 corridor.
• Town budget: Supervisor Jerry Halpin's tentative 2027 budget, released September 24, raises the townwide levy 2.79% to $62.88 million. The combined townwide rate would be $73.224 per $1,000 of assessed value, up from $71.598 in 2026. The town says the budget stays within the state tax cap, and the figures are preliminary until the Town Board adopts a final plan.

Newsday estimated the tentative budget would add about $101 a year for a home with an assessed market value of $800,000. That is the part of the bill the town controls through its budget. The chargeback line moves according to court calendars and county calculations, and in 2025-26 it was the line that jumped.

Comparing a Baiting Hollow bill with one across the town line

Plenty of buyers look at Baiting Hollow alongside Wading River and other hamlets in the Town of Brookhaven. The tax rates printed on the two towns' bills can't be compared directly.

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance defines an equalization rate as assessed value divided by market value. Its own example shows that towns assessing at different levels end up with different nominal tax rates, even when the shared tax burden has been equalized on market value. Riverhead also states its town rate per $1,000 of assessed value, and Brookhaven's rate sheet labels its rates per $100 of valuation. So a lower or higher number on either sheet says little by itself. The useful comparison is the dollar amount of actual bills on similar homes, including what each town's chargeback history adds.

Reassessment is on the table, though no plan exists yet

In her September 16 column, Tennenberg described the town's choice as "reassess or refund." She cited the general rule of thumb that after a reassessment about one-third of assessments go up, one-third go down and one-third stay the same. She also pointed to the state's guidance that a reassessment redistributes the levy without increasing it. She noted that in her 39 years with the town, only one supervisor, Phil Cardinale, openly supported a reassessment, and he walked that support back after public criticism.

The decision is up to the Town Board. As of early October 2026, no vote, consultant, cost or timeline has been announced.

FAQ

Will the United Riverhead Terminal refund appear on the next tax bills?

That isn't known yet. The county still has to calculate the refund, and the Town Board has talked about spreading the payments out. Both answers will shape what the line looks like.

Does a lower Riverhead tax rate mean lower taxes than in Brookhaven?

Not necessarily. Each town assesses at a different fraction of market value and prints its rates on a different basis, so you have to compare actual bills, not rates.

If Riverhead reassesses, will every home's taxes go up?

No. Under the state guidance Tennenberg cited, a reassessment changes how the levy is divided among properties, not how much the town collects. Some bills would rise, some would fall and some would stay about the same.

If you're thinking about a Baiting Hollow home and want to know what its tax bill is likely to look like next year, or you're selling and expect buyers to ask about that chargeback line, Donna Lomenzo can go through the assessment history and recent bills with you. Request Your Free Home Valuation and we'll start with the numbers on your property's own bill.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.