WPCNR County-Clarion Ledger. By John F. Bailey. November 1, 2006, UPDATED 1:13 P.M. EST:  Westchester County Commissioner of Finance Peter Pucillo reported to WPCNR this morning the County wired the City of White Plains $1,622,879.57 in city mortgage tax payments on June 15 of this year, and on December 15, Pucillo said the city will receive a mortgage tax payment of  $3,071,880.29, for a grand total of $4,694,759.86 in mortgage taxes for the year 2006, confirming previous WPCNR reports.

WPCNR also has learned the city and all cities and towns in Westchester may soon be getting their mortgage tax payments monthly. George Oros of the County Board of Legislators has submitted a draft resolution to committee that if enacted, would pay cities and towns their mortgage tax payments monthly, according to a legislative aid to Chairman of the Board of Legislators, Bill Ryan. The resolution is now in committee for discussion. The measure would sharply increase city cash flows, which currently with the exception of Yonkers receive mortgage tax payments every six months.

Westchester County Clerk Timothy Idoni yesterday assured the City of White Plains they have only to contact his office to obtain figures on how much they are owed in mortgage taxes by the county. Idoni told WPCNR that his County Clerk office is only one day behind in recording mortgage taxes owed the city. Idoni said, contrary to what the city reported last summer, that the county pays White Plains mortgage tax it is owed twice a year. Photo Capture from Westchester County Website.

Idoni was responding to complaints made this summer by  Mayor Joseph Delfino and City Commissioner of Finance Gina Cuneo-Harwood  at a meeting of the City Budget and Management Committee that the county was unable to give the city figures on how much the county owes White Plains in mortgage taxes, handicapping the city ability to budget and plan, and that the county was holding the money to earn interest on the float.

Everything Up to Date at 148 Martine.

Thanks to Idoni Initiative.

Idoni, who took over the County Clerk position from Leonard Spano announced the Clerk’s Office under his leadership has caught up with the backlog of transactions that was a year behind in processing mortgages and taxes last year at this time.

“When I got here they were 4-1/2 months behind (in processing mortgages and mortgage tax payments). As of today we are 1 day behind,” Idoni said. He said he put together “a good management program in March, studied the problem, and whittled it down over a period of six months. The backlog had been in place for three years. We got rid of it in six months. The original cause of the backlog was the massive number of refinancings done in the early part of the decade, which brought the number of papers  in from an average of 500 papers a day to be processed to close to a thousand a day. Right now it’s around 520 a day in deeds, mortgages. Every paper has to be processed. We have 25 people doing that work there’s a lot of computer entry. It’s hard.”

Idoni was asked if the county was going to continue paying the city its mortgage taxes only once a year as was reported at the meeting of the Budget and Management Committee where the Mayor and Commissioner Cuneo-Howard lodged the complaint against the county.

Up to the Board of Legislators to send Cities Tax Checks More Often.

“Actually, they get paid twice a year,” Idoni reported. “That is a decision that has to be made by the Board of Legislators. The state recently changed this in the spring that allows the counties to distribute the money on a more frequent basis, either quarterly or monthly."

Idoni explains --  "Everyone with the exception of Yonkers because they had the state law changed a couple of years ago, receives their mortgage tax recording taxes, White Plains, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, twice a year, and all the towns as well. Yonkers gets it quarterly. Until this spring the county was prohibited from doing it more frequently. They now have the option at the discretion of the County Board of Legislators of course with the signoff of the County Executive to do it more often, once a month if they wish to do that. It would have to be done by the Board of Legislators, not by this office.”

Idoni said his office could process White Plains (and other city and town payments) as often as the County Board tells them to do process it: “The issue is cash flow for the county, and things of that sort.”

Iodoni said the city gets payments in June and December, the next payment to White Plains is due in December.

City mortgage tax payments owed the City of White Plains, obtained from the County Clerk’s Office by Don Hughes  (as a favor to the city), two weeks ago total $4.6 Million. Hughes said he suggested to Executive Officer Paul Wood that he could attempt to get the figures from the Clerk’s Office for the city, and Hughes said Wood agreed that would be helpful to the city, so Hughes went ahead and worked with the County Clerk’s Office to obtain the estimate. County Commissioner of Finance Pucillo's confirmation of the payment of $4.7 Million for the year shows Mr. Hughes figure was "on the money."

Idoni said all White Plains has to do is call his office for a monthly estimate, which he said many finance commissioners (around the county) do.

Mortgage Taxes expected to decline.

Idoni said “The number (in 2006) has gone up slightly because of our expediting the process. It will go down significantly next year (2007), I predict, based on two things. 1.) Because we’ve cleaned up the backlog of old mortgages and 2.) the market is slowing, so we’re projecting 2/3 of what they received this year for next year. This is just a function of the market conditions and a cleanup of our backlog."

At the Budget & Management Committee meeting where the Mayor and his Commissioner of Finance revealed the backlog, they said the city had no idea of actually how much mortgage taxes were owed the city and they could not get the figures from the Clerk’s office.

Idoni said White Plains was much harder to predict mortgage tax receipts for the year due to the large amount of commercial real estate.

Draft Resolution to Increase Payments to Monthly In the Maw.

WPCNR contacted the Chairman of the Board of Legislators, Bill Ryan, Legislator to ascertain whether the county is moving to increase the frequency of the mortgage tax payments. Susan Kirkpatrick, an aide to Legislator Ryan reported that a draft resolution has been put in committee that would pay the mortgage tax monthly.