Sales tax collections were up 4.96% to $33,288,309, or 1.5 million dollars over 2022. The County shares 25% of these collections with Towns and Villages.
The Treasurer auctioned off 28 tax foreclosed properties at an August public auction. Despite writing off three years of uncollected property taxes, the sales produced a surplus of $210,000 at closings. Proposed State Law will no longer allow County’s to retain surplus and shall address a priority distribution of such funds.
The annual independent audit of all the County’s 2022 financial transactions, funds balances, and investments reported a clean opinion with no adverse findings and verifications of all account balances. And once again found the County within compliance of all state and federal reporting requirements.
In 2023, the County paid 2.9 million dollars in Community College tuition bills. This state mandated education service represented 12% of our County tax levy last year. One thousand four hundred and seventy residents benefited from this program.
E911 tax on telephone usage produced $768,312 to help pay for enhanced communication services in the future.
Staff Highlights:
The Treasurer’s Office lost our Chief Accountant and one of our Accounting Associate III, both to Broome County, in the last quarter of 2023. Recruiting for these positions proved challenging and took many months to get the right candidates. Luckily, the Treasurer’s Office was able to welcome Tina Driesbaugh as an Accounting Associate III in October and had successfully offered Natasha Douglas the position of Chief Account in late December.
The County’s 4th Annual Door Decorating Contest didn’t bring the Treasurer’s Office a win, but it did bring Grandma Ester! Grandma Ester became quite famous during her time at 56 Main Street, she enjoyed sitting in front of the office to welcome everyone.
