By GREGORY BACON

gbacon@observertoday.com

Chautauqua County’s mortgage tax revenue is up slightly countywide, with bigger gains in the two cities.

During the county legislature meeting, lawmakers approved a resolution distributing mortgage tax revenue, as required by law.

A total of $836,709 is being distributed to all the cities, towns and villages in the county.

The county gets the mortgage tax through property sales and mortgage refinancing.

Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon said mortgage tax receipts are up 2.2% from this time last year. “Not a dramatic increase,” he said during a committee meeting the week before.

However both cities had significant increases. “The city of Dunkirk is actually going up 16.1% from the same period last year and the city of Jamestown is going up 99.2% from the same period last year,” Chagnon said.

Legislator Bob Scudder, R-Fredonia replied, “So that means some are down if we’re only up 2.2% across the board,” to which Chagnon agreed.

Jamestown will receive $168,320 in mortgage tax revenue while Dunkirk will receive $50,156.

Both the towns of Busti and Ellery will receive more mortgage tax revenue than Dunkirk. Busti will receive $63,525 while Ellery will receive $50,443.

The lowest two municipalities are the villages of Panama and Sinclairville, both which will receive less than $1,000 of mortgage tax revenue.

County Finance Director Kitty Crow said the county had budgeted more than has come in so far, so right now they’re predicting a $100,000 deficit.

She added they have reduced expectations for the 2026 budget.