Relates to notice of unpaid taxes in the county of Monroe

3 Co-sponsors

• Rich Funke
• Patrick M. Gallivan
• Robert Ortt

Title of bill

An act to amend the real property tax law, in relation to notice of unpaid taxes in the county of Monroe

Purpose or general idea of bill

To increase the number of days after the expiration of the tax interest free period to ninety days for Monroe County to mail their unpaid tax notices.

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1 - amends subdivisions 1 and 2 of section 987 of the Real Property Law to increase the unpaid tax notice mail time-frame from eighty-five to ninety days for Monroe County.

Section 2 - of the bill provides that this act shall take effect immediately

Justification

Monroe County is unique in the state of New York in that it allows four installments in its Town and County tax collection. The final installment has a due date of April 30th. In order to comply with the current law, the unpaid notices must be mailed by May 6th. To allow for enough time to prepare the notices for mailing, the county must run its records that identify those with an outstanding balance on May 2nd. Tax payments for the 4th installment are still arriving in the mail for several days following May 2nd, resulting in numerous notices being mailed to taxpayers who have timely sent their final installment. In addition, when the due date lands on a weekend, as it did in 2016, the due date is extended to the following business day, which was the 2nd of May. Unnecessary mailing of unpaid tax notices is not only a waste of taxpayer dollars to generate and mail them, but also spawns a flood of phone calls from residents who had paid their fourth installment and are confused, and at times angry, that they have received the notice. Adding five more days to the window required for mailing of notices would have a dramatic effect in reducing the number of unpaid tax notices being generated.

Prior legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

None to state. Savings in production and postage costs will be realized by local taxing authorities as notices will no longer be produced and mailed to residents that mailed their fourth installment or partial or full payment close to or on the due date. Phone call volume will also be substantially reduced since residents will no longer be confused as a result of receiving a notice after they have made payment. This will allow Town and County staff to address other critical services to their constituents.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.