Essex County is taking a hit in mortgage tax revenue.

Before the last session of 2018, the state legislature failed to renew permission for a local portion of the fee that is paid when a mortgage is filed with the county clerk.

The Home Rule Legislation passed the State Senate but stalled in the Assembly, according to the office of Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay.

And so that fee, for Essex, Warren, Greene and Cattaraugus counties, was suspended as of Dec. 1.

“I was one of the lucky ones, yes indeed,” Essex County Clerk Joseph Provoncha said wryly.

—

Funded courthouse

The loss, he said, is 25 cents on every $100 of the full amount of the mortgage.

New York state still gets $2 for each $500 of a mortgage — that is state law, Provoncha said, and is not subject to renewal.

Towns get 0.5 percent as part of that law, too.

And Essex County continues to receive a 0.25 percent additional tax that also requires state OK.

The sunset on that Home Rule law is yet to come, Provoncha said, but the county will need state approval to continue charging it as that date approaches.

The county Board of Supervisors OK’d the additional tax to fund the $6 million courthouse in Elizabethtown some years ago.

“We never had to go to the taxpayers for any money,” the clerk said.

“We were lucky it was during the mortgage boom.”

—

Very busy month

The local tax was established to help pay for the new Public Safety Building in Lewis; the additional tax also goes for that purpose now, too.

Even a month’s loss in local mortgage tax hurts, Provoncha noted.

“December is a very busy month for record deeds and mortgages,” he said.

The total is $50,000 to $60,000 in local tax alone for that month; that averages out to $40,000 to $50,000 monthly, the clerk said.

In 2017, the county’s total share of mortgage tax was $411,965.

—

Waiting game

The state legislature begins its new session this month.

Lawmakers, Provoncha said, “promised the county attorney that (mortgage tax) is first thing they will take up.”

He expected the county would be collecting that fee within a few months.

Warren County Administrator Ryan Moore said his office has been in communication with state officials about the issue and was told the bill to reinstate the tax could get through by March 1, or with the 2019-20 state budget in the spring.

“We just don’t know — it will depend on how the new state Senate leadership handles it,” he said.

—

The flip side

State Assemblyman Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, said it is his understanding that the bill will be “handled” in January, when the new legislative session begins.

Until it is passed, those filing a mortgage will benefit — for example, it costs $250 less at present on a $100,000 loan.

Provoncha said Essex County and the other three counties plan to bill the state for the lost revenue.

“Just on principle,” he said, knowing doing so “will be a waste of paper.

“But it will make me feel better.”