COMPTROLLER CONTINUES MODERNIZATION OF OFFICE VIA ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS

Sales tax payments that support local municipalities and school districts transferred efficiently through direct deposit, rather than printing costly paper checks

(ERIE COUNTY, NY) – Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw announced today that school districts, towns and villages enrolled in the office’s direct deposit program will receive their share of sales tax revenue quickly and efficiently through an electronic direct deposit payment, rather than a paper check.  In all, 37 entities enrolled to date, and the first transaction of $20.5 million was deposited into local government and school district coffers immediately and efficiently on July 1.  This funding is critical for programming and operations.

“This is another great example of my office working to make it more convenient to conduct business with Erie County,” said Comptroller Mychajliw.  “We have brought numerous transactions and operations into the 21^st century.  Paying our partners in government electronically, rather than a paper check, cuts down on costs and ensures entities are paid in a timely manner.” 

The Erie County Comptroller’s office sent letters to every Erie County school district, village and town last month, inviting them to transition from having paper checks mailed to them for their share of sales tax revenue each quarter, to signing up for direct deposit via Automatic Clearing House (ACH) payments.  This reduces the need for municipalities and school districts to visit the bank after waiting for the check to arrive via mail.  It also cuts down on bureaucratic red tape in case a paper check was not received 

“Especially during this pandemic, local governments need to receive revenue as quickly as possible.  As we were also shifting to a remote workplace model to keep the county workforce safe from COVID, making this transition to electronic payments made perfect sense,” added Comptroller Mychajliw. 

In the first quarter of 2020, 76 checks were issued to make payments to local governments for their share of sales tax revenue.  This quarter just 39 checks were issued.  The other 37 payments were made electronically by direct deposit.

“I will continue to work with school districts, and cities, towns and villages in Erie County to enroll those interested in the electronic payment program.  It’s important we provide them this convenience as we continue to streamline the way we conduct business,” concluded Comptroller Mychajliw.

For pdf of release, click HERE

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