Calculation errors will impact tax bills for homeowners in Monroe County towns

A miscalculation by Monroe County’s Department of Finance will result in either relatively small credits or additional charges on 2024 tax bills for homeowners in county towns.

The average error comes out to about 1.4 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, the county said. For a house with an assessed value of $200,000, the homeowner will see either a credit or addition of $28 on the 2024 tax bill that arrives in December.

The error is related to calculations in 2022 involving sales tax credits to towns for the 2023 tax bills. When determining the tax bills, data from the 2020 U.S. Census incorrectly included village populations with the town population, county officials said.

The county distributes sales tax revenue two ways: through cash payments to local governments and as a credit on property tax bills for property owners outside of the city of Rochester and villages.

The errors were discovered when towns expressed concerns that second quarter tax payments did not match expectations.

Bills for city residents and villages were not impacted.

“When you find a problem, you need to fix it, and find out what happened, how it happened and take steps to ensure it won’t happen again,” County Executive Adam Bello said in a news release. “We are taking steps to ensure taxpayers were not over- or undercharged.”

The miscalculations also impacted cash payments to towns for the first two quarters of the year. Those discrepancies will be reconciled immediately, the county said.

Finance department officials also are updating policies and procedures to help ensure accurate calculations in the future.

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