county treasurer

Press release:

Genesee County Treasurer Scott D. German is pleased to announce that Genesee County residents (outside the City of Batavia) now have online access to their Town/County property tax information. This website:  http://genesee.go2gov.net  can be used to inquire on the status of their taxes, review payment history or make payments online with credit or debit cards or an e-check. A convenience fee will apply for online payments.

Tax information can be looked up by: the property owner’s name; property address; mailing address; or by tax ID number. The site is very easy to navigate and can provide very useful tax information.

Everything on the website is information already available to the general public.

As always, anyone with any questions can contact my office at 585-815-7803.

Press release:

There have been several phone calls to my office regarding the pre-payment of 2018 Town/County property taxes to be paid to the Town Tax Collector before Dec. 31, 2017.

• The new Federal Income Tax Law will only affect an estimated 10-15 percent of the population in Genesee County as far as the SALT deduction. The law allows taxpayers to deduct up to $10,000 a year in a combined New York State income tax and property taxes. So if your deduction of those taxes are less than the $10,000, it probably doesn’t make sense to pay your 2018 taxes early. For example, if your 2018 town/county, school and village taxes are $2,500 and your total New York State taxes paid will be $3,500 = $6,000. Total taxes paid are $6,000 which is less than the maximum $10,000 allowed; therefore your taxes would still be deductible on your 2018 tax return.
• It is unclear whether or not the IRS will allow a deduction of pre-payment of 2018 taxes on your 2017 tax return; please consult your tax accountant for clarification.
• The tax bills are effective for the county fiscal year of Jan. 1, 2018 – Dec. 31, 2018. Payment for these taxes should be made Jan. 1 or after.
• This law has no effect on residents of the City of Batavia since city/county tax warrant isn’t until May.

Press release:

Genesee County Treasurer Scott D. German announced today that he will be seeking a fourth term as County Treasurer in this November’s election.

German is in his 23rd year in the office, the last 12 of which have been as Treasurer. Among the many accomplishments of the Treasurer’s Office is the extremely successful 2010 refinancing of county debt, which saved Genesee County taxpayers more than $1,000,000 in interest expense over six years. Another highlight of German’s tenure is the successful office merger with Real Property. Merging operations with the Real Property Department has allowed for the sharing of resources, which in turn has saved county taxpayers money.

As Treasurer, German is the chief fiscal officer and tax enforcement officer for the County. Among a wide range of responsibilities as County Treasurer, German is responsible for the safeguarding of all county monies, the processing of county payroll, the processing of vendor payments, collection of delinquent taxes, tax foreclosures, maintaining the accounting records, overseeing of the independent audit and working with state and federal auditors.

German hopes the voters of Genesee County return him to office this November so he can continue serving the people of this fine county.

German holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management with a concentration in Finance from the State University of New York, College at Brockport. German is a past president (2012) of the New York State County Treasurers and Finance Officers Association and currently serves as one of two New York State delegates to the National Association of County Collectors, Treasurers & Finance Officers. He is also a member of the 2004 class of Leadership Genesee. German is a lifelong resident of Genesee County.

The way the county treasurer and county clerk see it, the NYS Office of Comptroller didn't do a very good job of crossing its Ts and dotting its Is when it came to issuing audit reports on their offices last month.

While the reports only raised minor bookkeeping issues and found no real evidence of mismanagement, both Scott German and Don Read told the Ways and Means Committee yesterday that they were blown over by the negative audit reports.

"Essentially, the State Comptroller's Office didn't follow normal protocol," German said. "There was no entrance interview, no exit interview, and they always give 90 days to respond and have our response in the audit, and that didn't happen either."

Read said the auditor who hit his office never clarified how certain court records were being handled, just said they weren't being handled correctly.

"Everything she complained about in the audit, we do," Read said. "They said we don't keep a record of it because we don't keep it in a book. Well, we don't keep it in a book any more. We keep it in a folder, a printout. We no longer have to write in a book, get a book out. We put it on computer. That was acceptable the last time they did a court and trust fund audit. They didn't raise any issues, but this time they found fault with it."

Like the Treasurer's Office, Read wasn't given a chance to file a written response before the audit was made public.

The treasure was knocked for not notifying the state of $507 in a trust that needed to be turned over as abandoned. German said the state has changed the rules on the time frame of such notifications in the past few years, but never communicated that change to county treasurers. The lastest printed booklet from the state, which is what German's staff was using contained the incorrect information. (There is apparently a downloadable booklet that is corrected.) He said his staff now has the corrected state booklet.

Ray Cianfrini, chairman of the Legislature, said the couple of minor complaints in the audit report were really a credit to both county offices because nothing more serious was found.

German said his office is currently in the third month of what he expects to be a year-long audit, and he's sure some discrepancy or another will be found.

"I'm sure they're going to find things," German said. "They always do, but nothing major."

Press release from County Treasurer Scott German:

I have very mixed emotions with the upcoming departure of Matt Landers as my deputy, I am sad that he is leaving the Treasurer’s Office, but I am very happy he is not going far; becoming the next Assistant County Manager. Matt has been with me since I became County Treasurer almost 10 years ago. I wish Matt all the best in his new position and I look forward to working with him over the next several years.

Filling Matt’s shoes will be a tough job; however I feel I have found a very well qualified, hardworking individual to assume that role. James D. Stack, 27, will be appointed by me to be the next Deputy County Treasurer as of February 1. Jim is currently an Operations Supervisor for Cardinal Logistics Management Corporation in Buffalo. Previously, Jim was an Account Manager for CH Robinson Worldwide in Rochester. Mr. Stack has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from SUNY Brockport.

Jim and his wife, Christina, reside in the Town of Batavia. Jim is the son of Kathy and Dan Reuter, of Corfu, and the grandson of Ronald and Rose DiSalvo, of Batavia.

Press release:

Genesee County Treasurer Scott D. German announced today that he will be seeking a third term as Genesee County Treasurer in this November’s election. German is in his 19th year in the office, the last eight of which have been as treasurer.

Among the many accomplishments of the Treasurer’s Office, the one that comes to mind first is the extremely successful 2010 refinancing of county debt, which saved Genesee taxpayers over $1,000,000 in interest expense over the next six years. Another highlight of German’s tenure is the successful office merger with Real Property.  Merging operations with the Real Property Department has allowed for the sharing of resources, which in turn has saved county taxpayers money.

As treasurer, German is the chief fiscal officer and tax enforcement officer for the county. Among a wide range of responsibilities as county treasurer, German is responsible for the safeguarding of all county monies, the processing of county payroll, the processing of vendor payments, collection of delinquent taxes, tax foreclosures, maintaining the accounting records, overseeing of the independent audit and working with state and federal auditors.

German hopes the voters of Genesee County return him to office this November so he can continue serving the people of this fine county.

In addition to German’s busy workload, he is also currently the president of the New York State County Treasurers and Finance Officers Association.

German holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management with a concentration in Finance from the State University of New York, College at Brockport. He is also a member of 2004 class of Leadership Genesee.  German is a lifelong resident of Genesee County.

County taxpayers will save more than $1 million in interest payments, thanks to an effort by County Treasurer Scott D. German to refinance four old bond issues.

German got permission from the County Legislature in January to try to refinance the bonds, and closed on all four issues -- from 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2001 -- on March 16.

The total savings turned out to be $1,113,632.50 over the next six years.

"We did better in the market place than we anticipated, we did about 10% better than expected,” German said in a press release today. "I couldn’t be happier to help provide these savings to the taxpayers.

The $10.7 million in bonds helped build the court facility, make improvements to the county building and old courthouse, build the GCC technology center and renovate the county nursing home.

From the press release:

Since we are experiencing low rates of interest in the bond market, German asked Fiscal Advisors, the county’s financial advisor, to take a look at refinancing  to see if it was worth while, “as it turned out it was a gigantic savings to the taxpayers,” German said.  “It is not often that I can save taxpayers over a million dollars, I am so glad I asked the question,” German said. “Bottom line, this is a great savings to Genesee County taxpayers."