Speaker Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul

The Hon. Kathy Hochul (guest of Frank Ralabate) is the Erie County Clerk.  She gave a brief explanation of what her office does, such as maintain all real property records, deeds, mortgages, judgements, liens, powers of attorney, leases, and various other filings affecting the title to real property.  Her office performs over 2 million transactions per year.  Her office is where all local businesses start.

She has been working one on one with the governor on ways to lower our taxes.  Her first job after college was to incorporate her mother's flower shop in 1984.  Because of her work with her mother, she feels she understands the struggles of a small business in New York State.

This is a record year for for home closures because of the initiative programs, but has since declined.  She is working to make the Erie County Auto Bureau a little more user friendly, because the county loses about 40% of its sales to other counties.  She said that at present there is no more waiting in lines.  The county is also realizing some revenue by selling advertising on the monitors in the DMV offices.

She wants us all to know that when we mail our renewals in to the state, the county loses their portion of the fees, so it's beneficial to the local economy if you go to the local county run DMV office in person.

The county realized $125,000 for passports during the beat the fee initiative, which saved the county about $8500.