County Treasurer
• • •
County Building I
15 Main Street
Batavia, New York 14020
(585) 344-2550 ext 2210
Email: treas@co.genesee.ny.us
Scott D. German, County Treasurer
L. Matthew Landers, CPA, Deputy Treasurer
Treasurer's Department
• • •
Organizational Chart
Department Description
The Treasurer’s Office is a mandated department by New York State and County law. The department is responsible for fiscal management for the county including fiscal records, payroll, accounts payable/receivable, tax collection, and cash management. All Genesee County residents and County departments benefit from the services provided by the Treasurer’s Office. In 2009, the Treasurer’s Office monitored all activities for; accounted for; a $140,517,653 total adopted budget.
The Treasurer’s Office is a true asset to the employees and residents of Genesee County. Numerous functions are handled in the Treasurer’s Office that often goes overlooked. Some of these lesser known responsibilities include the issuance of Certificates of Residency to more than 300 students annually, the maintenance of bail funds and court & trust monies, the receipt and distribution of both sales tax and mortgage tax monies to local municipalities, the collection and distribution of bed tax monies, along with various other tasks.
Starting in 2010, the Treasurer’s Office was merged with the Real Property Tax Services Department. The merged department will continue to be called the Treasurer’s Office. The Real Property Tax Services Division of the Treasurer’s Office exists to assist and support all municipalities within Genesee County with their responsibilities to provide for a fair and equitable administration of the real property tax. The division provides many services which benefit individuals as well as municipal representatives and business people.
Some of the services provided are:
- The coordination and training of assessment personnel in procedures established by State Law.
- Assessment related data processing services such as assessment rolls and bills, appraisal market and cost documents, mandatory State reports and public information reports.
- Tax map services. Tax maps are maintained for all properties in the County and owner index cards are now maintained using an on-line database, alleviating the need to update 2 sets of index cards on a manual effort, for all Real Property throughout the County.
- Information resource. A large amount of Real Property related information is available to the public through our Office or on-line. The local taxpayers use this data to gather information and forms on how to work with the property tax system to accomplish their needs. Information on how to challenge their assessments and exemption eligibility are two of the common topics that individuals research. The business community, on a daily basis, also accesses data from this Office and has found the on-line data extremely beneficial which assists them in performing their jobs from their offices. Realtors, attorneys, appraisers, surveyors, bankers and title searchers are some of the persons who rely on this data.
Strategic Framework
Mission
To continue to provide the best quality of service the residents and departments of the County expect and deserve from the County Treasurer’s Office, and to provide taxpayers with a fair and equitable administration of the real property tax.
Key 2009 Accomplishments
- Made approximately $116,000 in profit from the 2006 tax property foreclosure sale, the sixth consecutive year of attaining a net profit.
- Worked with Nursing Home on monitoring cash flow trends and devising strategies to pay down the $1.8 million RAN borrowed in 2008. In 2009 the RAN was paid off entirely.
- Implemented positive pay system on the Department of Social Services checking account at M&T Bank. This process provides greater security for the County’s money and prevents unauthorized individuals from cashing fraudulent checks.
- Worked with actuary firm to develop GASB 45 liability figure for inclusion in the 12/31/08 County financial statements. The County’s GASB 45 liability is one of the lowest amounts across the entire State.
- 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.
- Successfully completed 2008 calendar year audit with new 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.
- Genesee County was selected as one of ten municipalities across New York State to take part in a Capital Project Audit during the spring of 2009. After an extensive audit, the State announced the County had a “model” Capital Project Program.
- The County received a two step upgrade in its bond rating from S&P Rating Agency to an AA-. A two grade bump is very rare and is a reflection on the sound financial policies being practiced by the County Legislature and Treasurer’s Office.
Key 2009 Real Property Tax Services Department Accomplishments:
- Supported the City of Batavia and Towns of Batavia, Bergen, Byron, Elba, LeRoy, Oakfield, Pavilion and Stafford with annual assessment update duties. Also supported the Town of Alexander in a triennial assessment update.
- Continued contractual obligation with the City of Batavia for annual review of assessments. Collaboration between City Assessor, County, NYSORPS and GAR Associates has replaced full time assessor position. All properties were analyzed using Computerized Assisted Appraisal techniques for the 2009 fiscal year. Four neighborhoods were field reviewed due to statistics showing that values were below 100%. The statistics continued to show the equity within the Assessment Roll once the field review was performed. This collaboration has been extremely successful.
- All mylar tax maps have been converted to a digital format and are now being maintained in-house, within the Real Property Department, using a geodatabase and GIS mapping software. The Department performs the reading of all deeds and is making all tax map changes to accomplish this task. Continued working with 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 2009 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.
- Successfully completed the NYSRPTATIP Grant, along with Bergmann Associates. This Grant has created a database of our index cards that we currently maintain for 28,000+ properties on a day-to-day basis as deed changes occur. This also included the index cards that were maintained by the City Assessor’s Office. The index cards were over 30 years old, the need to convert to a digital format was imminent, as we did not have any source of backup for the index cards. The availability of the index cards converted to a database has now allowed other departments access from their desktops, and affording our Department to move into the future. This has been an extremely successful venture, and has been made available to the Public via the internet through our County website or through our GIS website. This has resulted in an excellent set of information for Attorneys, Surveyors, Abstract Companies who relied on our index card file on a daily basis, and will now find this information accessible from their desktops.
The "traffic" through the Real Property Department and use of the tax maps and index cards has drastically been reduced this past year, due to the access of this data via the internet.
- Continue work with Bergmann Associates, County’s GIS consultant in regards to the maintenance of tax maps. The Department performs all tax map maintenance in-house.
- Support the continued development of the GIS site.
- The Department was awarded a Grant from NYSORPS for the study of the assessment administration function in regards to consolidation and collaboration amongst the Towns and the County RPT Department. This Grant has also been successfully completed with the County being awarded a total of $50,000. The Study was completed in-house with a committee that represented the Assessment Community, County Legislature, Town Boards, and private property owner.
- Genesee County has ventured into a 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 to move forward with their GIS project.
Key 2010 Goals
- Work with Purchasing Department on implementing new County “Cost Per Copy” contract. The CPC program has resulted in significant copier savings to the County over the last four years.
- Complete tax foreclosure auction for sixth consecutive year, with delinquent parcels from 2007, keeping with new annual schedule of tax foreclosures. Maintaining an annual schedule will bring in consistent revenues each year instead of sporadically every few years.
- Implement Accounts Payable functions into the new Electronic Document Management System. This will save on copying costs and time spent filing and retrieving.
- Work in conjunction with IT Department and Purchasing Department to implement a major upgrade to the financial software package. This upgrade is to a more user friendly, Windows based system, as opposed to the current system that mirrors an older DOS based system. This new system will move the Treasurer’s Office forward with technology, which is essential in a department such as this.
- Continue working with Purchasing Department on the training and monitoring of P-Card users. The P-Card system has been a success to date helping eliminate postage and paper costs while making the purchasing process of items under $500 much more efficient.
- Work with Purchasing Department and Buildings and Grounds to coordinate an inventory and assessment of County property for insurance purposes.
- Continued support to the annual assessment projects including the City of Batavia, Towns of Batavia, Bergen, Byron, Elba, LeRoy, Oakfield, Pavilion and Stafford.
- Continue collaboration with the City of Batavia, NYSORPS and GAR Associates. The contract between the City of Batavia and GAR Associates was renegotiated, along with continued contractual agreement with the County. GAR’s participation has been diminished per services provided in place of another quite expensive contract with GAR Associates. The Department continues to perform the diminished services per the revised contract between the City and GAR.
- Continue work with Bergmann Associates, County’s GIS consultant in regards to the maintenance of tax maps. The Department performs all tax map maintenance in-house.
- Support the continued development of the GIS site.
- Continued collaborative effort with Orleans County Real Property in regards to the tax map maintenance contract.
- Continued support of the on-line Assessment information that has been made available to the public. The availability of this information, which ranges from assessment and inventory data of all real property, tax bill information for the fiscal year, deed owner data, tax maps, has alleviated traffic in our Department and phone calls, as the public and professionals have found this data to be easily attained via their homes or offices.
Budget Summary
| Appropriation By Object |
Adopted 2008 |
Actual 2008 |
Adopted 2009 |
Estimated 2009 |
Adopted 2010 |
| Salary/Fringe | 407,397 | 404,358 | 402,824 |
402,824 | 589,059 |
| Equipment | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Contractual | 65,066 | 57,893 | 59,708 |
59,708 | 117,289 |
| Total Appropriation | 472,463 | 462,251 | 462,532 |
462,532 | 706,348 |
| Revenue | 54,000 |
50,631 | 54,000 | 54,000 | 80,321 |
| Net County Support | 418,463 | 411,620 |
408,532 |
408,532 | 626,027 |
| FTE's | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Budget Highlights
- NYS Retirement costs are projected to increase by over 50% in 2010.
- Budgeted health insurance costs increased by approximately 9% in 2010.
- Before the merger with the Real Property Tax Services Department, the net County support for the Treasurer’s Office has increased over the last seven years by a total of less than 5%, which is far less than the rate of inflation over the same span. This office is pleased to be able to control its budget growth to less than the rate of inflation, thus minimally impacting the taxpayers of this community.
- The transformation from the need of a contractor to our in-house project has been an extremely collaborative effort involving the RPTS, Planning and I.T. Departments, in conjunction with our GIS Consultants. This function is being handled very efficiently and will continue to provide a high quality product, which is essential to the use of the GIS systems throughout the County. It has afforded us the opportunity to perform tax map maintenance via our GIS system to the Orleans County Real Property Tax Department, providing added revenue to the County Treasurer’s Office.
Indicators
| Actual 2008 |
Budget/ Estimated 2009 |
Estimated 2010 |
|
| Fiscal Management of County Budget | 138,599,990 |
140,517,653 | |
| Gen. Fund Invest Earnings | 729,683 | 800,000 |
250,000 |
| Open Court & Trust Cases | 17 | 17 | |
| Dog Licenses | 8,614 | 8,600 | |
| Dog Damage Claims | 0 | 1 | |
| Tax Searches | 112 | 125 | |
| Certificates of Residency Issued | 308 | 300 | |
| Vendor Checks | 8,476 | 8,500 | |
| Misc. Checks | 795 | 800 | |
| Payroll Checks Issued | 22,528 | 22,000 | |
| State/ Federal Claims | 451 | 450 | |
| General Checks | 10,437 | 10,000 | |
| Number of Accounts with Financial Institutions | 78 | 75 | 75 |
| Tax Receipts Issued | 2,479 | 2,500 | 2,500 |
| Number of Deposits Made | 980 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| General Ledger Transactions | 107,327 | 100,000 | 100,000 |
| Wire & ACH Transactions | 1,444 | 1,400 | 1,400 |
| Active Capital Projects | 31 | 35 | 35 |
Property Transfers |
1,431 | 1,400 | 1.400 |
Tax Map Parcels Updated |
1,166 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
Parcels Grieved/Update |
239/20,541 | 135/10,327 | 220/20,700 |
Real Property
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The department has sucessfully applied for and received a Technology Grant through the State Office Of Real Property Services to provide analytical assessment data on line through a relationship with Pro Serve Inc. Assessment data such as inventories, comparable sales and ,if available, images of the various properties in the County are available by accessing the following link: Genesee County Real Property Data
The Real Property Tax Services Department exists to assist and support all municipalities within Genesee County with their responsibilities to provide for a fair and equitable administration of the real property tax. The department provides many services which benefit individuals as well as municipal representatives and business people.
Some of the services provided are:
- The coordination and training of assessment personnel in procedures established by State Law.
- Assessment related data processing services such as assessment rolls and bills, appraisal market and cost documents, mandatory state reports and public information reports.
- Tax map services. Tax maps are maintained for all properties in the county and owner index cards for all properties in the towns and villages.
- Information resource. A large amount of real property related information is available to the public. The local taxpayers use this office to gather information and forms on how to work with the property tax system to accomplish their needs. Information on how to challenge their assessments and exemption eligibility are two of the common topics that individuals research. The business community on a daily basis access data from this office which assist them in performing their jobs. Realtors, attorneys, appraisers, surveyors, bankers and title searches are some of the persons who rely on this data.
