Long Island Mayor Quits After Jacking Up Taxes 87%, Costing Village Nearly $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 (R) abruptly stepped down alongside 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 that they said is being antisemitically stonewalled by the local government.

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