Poughkeepsie... Dutchess County Executive William R. Steinhaus has announced major enhancements have been completed to ParcelAccess, one of the eGovernment applications available on the County website https://www.dutchessny.gov/.   ParcelAccess provides residents, property owners, professionals and prospective buyers with on-line access to map-based parcel and assessment information from the comfort of their home or office. 
  
County Executive Steinhaus said, “ParcelAccess is one of our most popular eGovernment applications.   The new enhancements integrate information and tools suggested by business and community users to improve search capabilities of residential and commercial properties.”

ParcelAccess is a joint project between the county’s Real Property Tax (RPT) department and Office of Computer Information Systems (OCIS).  The new enhancements were funded through a $105,000 grant from the New York State Office of Real Property Services (ORPS).   Dutchess County was able to secure the grant thanks in part to the cooperation of 22 local municipalities.

Some of the new features of the enhanced ParcelAccess application include:

• Property Tax Estimator allows users to estimate property tax based on county, town/village and school tax rates by inputting the sale price (or estimated market value), municipality and school district.
  
  
• Property Photos are now available for properties in ten municipalities.   Thanks to collaborative efforts with town assessors more than 12,000 photos of property structures are accessible online.
  
  
• Advanced Search Tools allow users to easily perform county-wide searches, residential sales searches and residential assessment search.
  
  
• County Clerk Filed Map Search allows users to view historical filed maps of parcels dating back to the 1800’s.   More than 12,000 paper maps were cleaned, scanned and are now available as high quality downloadable images.    Online availability of maps was a top request of engineers and surveyors who utilize the site.   (See link to photo of filed map from 1840 below.)

Tim Mahler, Commissioner of the Office Computer Information Systems (OCIS) said, “ParcelAccess is utilized by thousands of users, with an average of 650,000 pages accessed each month.   Our team has worked hard to incorporate feedback from both municipalities and community users to provide useful new tools to meet their needs.”

Director of Real Property Tax Kathleen Myers said, “One of our primary goals for ParcelAccess is to make information easily available to property owners so they can gain a better understanding of the assessment process.  Users who have questions on topics such as equalization rates, assessments, property tax exemptions and much more can find the information they need.  I would like to thank all of the local assessors who have worked with us to make this information available.”  

County Executive Steinhaus said, “The OCIS and RPT staff who are involved with this project are to be commended.   I think users will truly be impressed by the improvements.   It is really amazing to see how much information is available through this online resource.   You could spend hours just viewing all of the maps and marveling at their historical significance.”

County Executive Steinhaus concluded, “ParcelAccess is great example of our continued efforts to work smarter and think greener.    This tool makes information more accessible to the public and saves them time, energy and fuel by avoiding a trip to County offices or local municipal offices.”