Key 2012 Accomplishments
  • Made approximately $262,000 in profit from the 2009 tax property foreclosure sale. This marks the eighth consecutive year of attaining a net profit from the tax property foreclosure sale.
  • Started paying vendors electronically through ACH payments.  The option is available to all vendors who wish to be paid electronically.  As more vendors sign up for electronic payments the costs for postage, check stock, envelopes and printer ink will substantially decrease.
  • Successfully combined independent auditing service contracts for the Genesee County Nursing Home and Genesee County into one combined contract.  This combined contract is less costly than two separate contracts, thus providing savings to County taxpayers.
  • Continued the billing of all Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT’s) inside the County.  Starting in 2008, the Treasurer’s Office started to bill for City PILOT’s as well.  Previously, the City maintained this function, but to consolidate the workload the Treasurer’s Office took over this responsibility.  For all new PILOT’s in the City the collection date for County PILOT’s will be January instead of May, which will improve the County’s cash flow position and earn additional interest.
  • Developed a plan with the GCEDC to forward all PILOT contracts before they are finalized so the Treasurer’s Office/Real Property Division can review them for accuracy.  This review has helped catch several errors that could have resulted in delayed PILOT payments to the County or other municipalities.
  • Successfully completed 2011 calendar year audit with independent auditing firm, Freed, Maxick & Battaglia.  The County received an unqualified opinion and was notified that the County’s financial operations are run very well.
  • The County maintained its strong bond rating of AA- from S&P Rating Agency. 
  • In November of 2010 the Treasurer’s Office implemented an upgraded County government wide financial system that encompasses payroll, accounts payable, revenue accounting, journal processing, inventory and procurement.  The Treasurer’s Office took the lead in this significant project and has participated in and assisted in providing over twenty weeks of training to Genesee County employees on the upgraded system.  Benefits of the new system include a more efficient way of conducting County government through employee time savings, paper cost savings, and staff development/training time savings.  While this accomplishment took place in 2010 it is being noted here because each year there are new features, functionalities and modules implemented that continue to provide savings and efficiencies.
  • Supported the City of Batavia and Towns of Batavia, Bergen, Byron, Elba, LeRoy, Oakfield, Pavilion and Stafford with annual assessment update duties.
  • Continued contractual obligation with the City of Batavia for annual review of assessments.  Collaboration between the City Assessor, County, NYSORPTS and GAR Associates has replaced a full time assessor position.  All properties were analyzed using Computerized Assisted Appraisal techniques for the 2012 assessment year.  This collaboration has been extremely successful.
  • All tax maps continue to be maintained in-house, within the Real Property Department, in a digital format using a geodatabase and GIS mapping software.  The Department reads all of the deeds for the county and makes all necessary tax map changes each year. Continued working with the GIS Focus Team and Bergmann Associates with the on-going development of the County GIS site.  Digital maps have been imported into the GIS system as well as 2012 assessment files, making this a very useful tool for our Planning Department, Sheriff’s Department, Health Department and many others. The GIS data and the Real Property tax maps have also been made available to the public via the internet.

 

This step into digital mapping and GIS has also afforded the County another revenue source, as this digital information has become very popular to many outside vendors.

  • Continued maintenance of the Genesee County access to the Real Property Information, Parcel History Database, Tax Maps and Tax Bill information on the internet. The website has been extremely successful and very popular with the public.
  • The “traffic” through the Real Property Department and use of the tax maps and index cards has drastically been reduced these past couple of years, due to the access of this data via the internet.
  • The Real Property Department has continued the Tax Map Maintenance contract with the Orleans County Real Property Department. The Department will perform the tax map maintenance of the 22,000+ parcels in Orleans County. Our goal is to help Orleans County achieve a reliable and accurate Geodatabase in regards to tax map maintenance and to assist them in moving forward with their GIS project.
  • The Real Property Department continues to work with the IT Department to maintain the Terminal Server which houses all of the assessment data for Genesee County.  Having all of the assessment data in one countywide server has proved to be very useful for the administration of taxes and for the Department’s support in the assessment process. 
The Real Property Department has made good progress towards including water district boundary lines on the tax maps.  In 2012 approximately half of the water districts in Genesee County were added, which should prove to be very useful for individuals and entities that use our tax maps.-