Oyster Bay refunds penalty to homeowners whose taxes finally arrive in the mail — 5 years late

On Dec. 4, 2020, Valerie and James Stagnari, of Plainview, mailed the first half of their school tax payment to the Town of Oyster Bay. The check, sent six days before the due date, was for close to $10,000.

More than five years later, it arrived.

Its disappearance led the town to charge the couple a nearly $400 late penalty in February 2021. The Stagnaris were puzzled. They reported the missing check to the post office and paid their bill a second time, on top of the late fee. 

Then last year, on Dec. 29, the check arrived at the town tax receiver's office.

It wasn't the only unusually late tax payment to arrive to town offices recently.

Another check, mailed in August 2025, showed up in the mail five months later — on Jan. 5. The homeowner had been levied a $57.12 late fee.

Last week, the Oyster Bay town board refunded the penalties imposed on both property owners.

Town officials were baffled. The homeowners — vindicated. 

"Not only does the tax receiver's office taketh, it giveth back," Jeffrey Pravato, the town’s receiver of taxes, said during a recent town board meeting where officials approved the refunds. Pravato's office is responsible for collecting property tax payments across the town.

Valerie Stagnari said she was confused when the town’s late-fee notice was issued. She reached out to the U.S. Postal Service for help.

“They kept telling us it’s impossible to lose a registered or certified letter, but I said, ‘Well, you did,'” Stagnari, 76, of Plainview, said in a phone interview.

Town officials said they weren't sure why the check arrived after a five-year sojourn. The Stagnaris reached out to the post office's Plainview branch, which referred them to a national office.

“We just sucked it up and said, ‘We’ll learn from that,' " she said, adding the couple vowed never again to mail a check of that magnitude. Her husband now pays the bill online.

The town’s late charges are standard, and so is its obligation to issue refunds due to an error, Supervisor Joseph Saladino said during the meeting.

“These were charged because it took, in one case, five years for a letter to go from the home of a Town of Oyster Bay resident up here to Oyster Bay,” Saladino said. “We’re returning those monies, as we should.”

Online payments urged

Oyster Bay officials say residents should pay property taxes online to avoid delays and the chance that checks are stolen on the way to Town Hall.

Amy Gibbs, a USPS spokeswoman, said in a statement that cases of yearslong delays "are extremely rare."

"While we are generally very proud of the manner in which the mail is processed, it is disappointing to recognize and accept that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, errors and delays will occasionally occur," Gibbs said. The agency urges its "customers to report incidents," she said.

The town launched an online tax payment portal in 2016. Last year, the town recorded 62,000 online payments — tripling the number of digital deposits in a 10-year span. Each year, the town processes a total of 102,000 total payments annually, Pravato said.

A $1.75 fee is applied to online payments. But the price is negligible, Pravato said, when the risk of mail theft is factored in.

“We’ve had a lot of stolen checks,” Pravato said.

Brian Nevin, a town spokesman, said the tax receiver's office learned of 20 checks stolen from the mail in 2025 that were cashed-in by scammers. Federal post office detectives investigated, he said.

The town is considering changing its yellow return envelopes for tax payments to make it harder for thieves to spot checks headed for Town Hall.

Valerie Stagnari said she was grateful the check's roundabout journey reached a conclusion.

"It's been years now," she said. "I'm happy that we're getting the refund back."

The town plans to either offer to return the tax checks, or shred them, based on the homeowner's request.

The refunds, however, are to be sent by mail.