November 27, 2012
Technology Reduces Payroll, Overhead and Creates Efficiencies
WHITE PLAINS, NY - The award-winning Westchester County Clerk’s Office has achieved a financial milestone by cutting its proposed operating budget for the sixth straight year. The 2013 budget request calls for a total spending package of $7,569,001, down from $7,754,394 in 2012 and down eighteen per cent (18%), or $1,674,659, since 2006, County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni’s first year in office. Payroll savings alone now total over $3.5 million cumulatively since 2009.
Clerk Idoni stated upon the release of his budget, “This is a professional and humane way of reducing government spending. We have realized our initial goal of an office in which manual labor and repetitive tasks have been eliminated and operational efficiency has been increased. I’m proud that we have been able to save taxpayer dollars while vastly improving service to our customers, the residents and businesses of Westchester and the region.”
The Clerk’s Office projects 2013 revenue at $11,272,479, while expenses are estimated at $7,569,001, a difference of $3,703,478, which is returned to the County’s General Fund to reduce property tax obligations. Idoni gives credit to his staff which has produced cost-saving programs by partnering with the County Department of Information Technology and the State Office of Court Administration. Programs such as electronic filing of court records and electronic delivery of deeds and mortgages vastly reduce paperwork and processing time, saving personnel, storage, and postage costs. Documents in the land records division which years ago took months to process are now processed in days or hours. Payments are also handled electronically, reducing clerical errors and enhancing cash flow to the county.