“As demonstrated, Mr. Cyr does not possess either the knowledge or experience”
From Tammy Hurd-Harvey, West Almond NY
Last week, in the Alfred Sun, Adam Cyr made some statements and implied certain “wrong-doing” by the Allegany County Treasurer’s office. These statements demonstrate Mr. Cyr’s ignorance of New York State law and the Allegany County Treasurer’s responsibilities. I will itemize these as he did in his communication as published in the Alfred Sun last week(the Wellsville Sun published this OP-ED on June 7)
- Leased vehicles: Mr. Cyr wonders if it is cost effective to lease County vehicles. A cost analysis is required by New York State General Municipal Law. I am confident that the County undertook this analysis and that it would be available for review by any resident so inclined to seek it out.
- Estate Commissions: Mr. Cyr reports that the County Treasurer gets 10 percent of any estate that does not have a will. The County Treasurer does NOT get 10% of any estate for which no Will exists. The County Chief Fiscal Officer is appointed by Surrogates Court (under NY Consolidated Laws, surrogate’s Court Procedure Act – SCP subsection 1303) only when there are no qualified relatives or no relative will volunteer to serve as the estate administrator. In other words, the County Treasurer is the estate administrator only as a last resort. If family members exist, one of those people need to merely step up and administer the estate to avoid any commissions to the public estate administrator (County Treasurer). Additionally, the fee is not 10% of the value of the estate. The fee is the same as any estate in New York and is based on a sliding scale.
- Unlawful Tax Sales: Mr. Cyr wonders if we could save money by cutting back on law suits against the county for unlawful tax sales. There is no such thing as an unlawful tax sale. The tax foreclosure process in defined in New York State Real Property Tax Law Article 11. Most every County in NY, including Allegany, must follow the very narrowly constructed rules in this law. No deviation is permitted. Any person who lost their property under the tax foreclosure process had multiple communications from the Treasurer’s office and in excess of two years within which to remedy their failure to pay their taxes.
- Profiting from tax sales: Mr. Cyr believes that the County generates over $1 million in profit from the tax foreclosure process. Over two years ago, New York State made it impossible to cover the unpaid property taxes within each County. Most Counties, including Allegany, make each taxing district within the County whole. In other words, the County pays the towns, villages and school districts for any unpaid town, village or school taxes. Then the County attempts to collect those taxes. If taxes remain unpaid for two plus years, the County can foreclose against the property following the very detailed process in Article 11 (referenced in 3 above). Prior to the change in NYS law, the County would sell some of the properties for a gain and some of the properties would sell at a loss. The gains would often (though not always) offset the losses. Under the new law, for each property that sells at a gain, the prior owner must be notified and may petition the court to have that gain given to them (minus a small fee). Under this new law, the County will incur a loss on the tax foreclosure process. The County will have paid the other municipalities for their taxes, the County will incur the costs to foreclose (not an inexpensive endeavor), sell the properties, give the excess to the people who did not pay their taxes, and the people who do pay their taxes will have to pay the costs of the properties that sell at less than the taxes due. Currently, there is no gain to the counties from the tax foreclosure process. I see that a small revenue line remains in the Allegany County 2025 budget for the gain on sale. Although I do not know why that is the case (it was $0 in 2024), perhaps that amount was budgeted in anticipation that not all of the prior owners will come forward to claim the surplus. We can only hope that there will be a small surplus to offset the costs of foreclosure.
I apologize for the pedantic nature of this letter. I simply want the public to understand that it is important to have a County Chief Fiscal Officer (aka Treasurer) who is knowledgeable about the financial and real property tax functions of a County government. As demonstrated, Mr. Cyr does not possess either the knowledge or experience to carry out the responsibilities of the office of Treasurer.
*Read the OP-ED by Mr. Cyr being referred to in this opinion letter:
