Mortgage tax revenue for Chautauqua County is dropping.

During the legislature’s Administrative Services Committee, a resolution was presented to distribute mortgage tax revenue to all cities, towns and villages.

The total amount to be distributed is $682,024.

Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon said comparing this amount to the previous six months, mortgage tax revenue is down 17%.

Comparing this amount to the same period in 2024, it’s down 21%.

County Finance Director Kitty Crow noted that during COVID and immediately following, there was a large uptick in mortgage tax receipts. “That has started to fall back to the pre-COVID levels,” she said.

Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon added that because mortgage rates are so high, there’s a lot less refinancing taking place as well.

Legislator Bob Scudder said the lower numbers aren’t too surprising. “There was definitely a feeling that we had peaked a couple of years ago,” he said.

Chautauqua County collects an additional 0.25% taxes from mortgage sales and refinancing. Some of that money is redistributed to towns, villages and cities.

In order to continue collecting the additional mortgage tax, the county is requesting the state to permit the tax.

In a separate resolution, the county is asking the state to continue to collect the 0.25% mortgage tax through April 30, 2028.

Both the distribution of mortgage revenue and the request to keep the additional mortgage tax revenue resolutions need to be approved by the full legislature at its next meeting on Wednesday.