Software upgrade snafu has city's Revenue Department feeling the heat

The city's Revenue Office on Wakefield Street at center of software upgrade glitch. (Courtesy photo)

ROCHESTER - A company charged with making upgrades to Rochester's Revenue Collection system continues to have software issues enabling the upgrade, which is putting some homeowners at risk of making timely property tax payments.

The situation is especially critical for homeowners who rely on their mortgage bank to make the payments out of escrow funds they pay into every month.

Andi Brunner, a loan servicing associate at Profile Bank, noted that the fact of the matter is they can't make the escrow payments until they get the bill from the city.

Brunner said they were checking the City of Rochester website every morning, and as soon, as they see the bills, they'll walk the payments directly over to the city's Revenue Office on Wakefield Street.

The sense of urgency for many homeowners is real, because if tax payments aren't made in 2019, they won't be able to claim the interest paid on their tax return, thus making for a smaller refund or a bigger bill with the IRS.

Deputy City Manager and Finance Director Katie Ambrose said right now they're at the mercy of Tyler Technology of Maine, the software company in charge of the upgrade.

"We got an upgrade fix on Friday evening," Ambrose said today. "Then we tested it out and found additional errors. Now they are assessing those errors to get a new timeframe (for releasing the bills)."

Ambrose said her staff had been working hard with Tyler Technology to resolve the problem. She said earlier testing with the software had showed no problems but once they began to roll it out they began to show.

She said she hoped to hear later today what the new timeframe for release of the software fix and tax bills release would be.

"Hopefully they will make a statement later today," she said referring to the software firm.

One property owner who called The Rochester Voice but wanted to remain anonymous said their mortgage bank has said if they don't have the tax payment to them by Christmas, it won't be shown on the ledger as being paid in 2019. That means they can' use the interest paid to reduce their tax liability.

"If we don't make the payment we can't get the deduction," he said. "We have Chase Bank and they bought up a lot of mortgages in Rochester several years ago so a lot of folks could be in trouble."

Meanwhlie, Ambrose said they'd gotten quite a few calls from concerned homeowners today.

"We feel terrible about this, and we're doing the best we can to get if fixed," she said.

The city's tax rate was set earlier this month; at that time officials estimated the bills would be sent out today. Now the city is saying it might not be till Dec. 27.

Once the fix is made, Ambrose said the mortgagors and mortgagees will be able to pay the bills immediately and they would be sent out in the mail.

She said if property owners are in charge of paying their own taxes, they can get the figure off the website and bring a check down to the Revenue Office.

Tax bills will be due 30 days from the mailing date.