Raise Washington Mortgage Tax

Section 1. The tax law is amended by adding a new section 253-y to read as follows:

§ 253-y. Recording tax imposed by the county of Washington. 1. Washington county, acting through its local legislative body, is hereby authorized and empowered to adopt and amend local laws imposing in such county a tax of twenty-five cents for each one hundred dollars and each remaining major fraction thereof of principal debt or obligation which is or under any contingency may be secured at the date of execution thereof, or at any time thereafter, by a mortgage on real property situated within such county and recorded on or after the date upon which such tax takes effect and a tax of twenty-five cents on such mortgage if the principal debt or obligation which is or by any contingency may be secured by such mortgage is less than one hundred dollars.

2. The taxes imposed under the authority of this section shall be administered and collected in the same manner as the taxes imposed under subdivision one of section two hundred fifty-three and paragraph (b) of subdivision one of section two hundred fifty-five of this article. Except as otherwise provided in this section, all the provisions of this article relating to or applicable to the administration and collection of the taxes imposed by such subdivisions shall apply to the taxes imposed under the authority of this section with such modifications as may be necessary to adapt such language to the tax so authorized. Such provisions shall apply with the same force and effect as if those provisions had been set forth in full in this section except to the extent that any provision is either inconsistent with a provision of

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD03668-01-9

A. 4474 2

this section or not relevant to the tax authorized by this section. For purposes of this section, any reference in this article to the tax or taxes imposed by this article shall be deemed to refer to a tax imposed pursuant to this section, and any reference to the phrase "within this state" shall be read as "within Washington county", unless a different meaning is clearly required.

3. Where the real property covered by the mortgage subject to the tax imposed pursuant to the authority of this section is situated in this state but within and without the county imposing such tax, the amount of such tax due and payable to such county shall be determined in a manner similar to that prescribed in the first undesignated paragraph of section two hundred sixty of this article which concerns real property situated in two or more counties. Where such property is situated both within such county and without the state, the amount due and payable to such county shall be determined in the manner prescribed in the second undesignated paragraph of such section two hundred sixty which concerns property situated within and without the state. Where real property is situated within and without the county imposing such tax, the recording officer of the jurisdiction in which the mortgage is first recorded shall be required to collect the taxes imposed pursuant to this section.

4. A tax imposed pursuant to the authority of this section shall be in addition to the taxes imposed by section two hundred fifty-three of this article.

5. Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the contrary, the balance of all moneys paid to the recording officer of the county of Washington during each month upon account of the tax imposed pursuant to the authority of this section, after deducting the necessary expenses of his or her office as provided in section two hundred sixty-two of this article, except taxes paid upon mortgages which under the provisions of this section or section two hundred sixty of this article are first to be apportioned by the commissioner, shall be paid over by such officer on or before the tenth day of each succeeding month to the treasurer of Washington county and, after the deduction by such treasurer of the necessary expenses of his or her office provided in section two hundred sixty-two of this article shall be deposited in the general fund of the county of Washington for expenditure on the support of community colleges in accordance with article one hundred twenty-six of the education law. Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding sentence, the tax so imposed and paid upon mortgages covering real property situated in two or more counties, which under the provisions of this section or section two hundred sixty of this article are first to be apportioned by the commissioner, shall be paid over by the recording officer receiving the same as provided by the determination of the commissioner.

6. Any local law imposing a tax pursuant to the authority of this section or repealing or suspending such a tax shall take effect only on the first day of a calendar month. Such a local law shall not be effective unless a certified copy thereof is mailed by registered or certified mail to the commissioner at the commissioner's office in Albany at least thirty days prior to the date the local law shall take effect.

7. Certified copies of any local law described in this section shall also be filed with the county clerk of the county of Washington, the secretary of state and the state comptroller within five days after the date it is duly enacted.

§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.