Submitted by Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi
As your Cook County Assessor, I want to update you on how assessments and property tax burdens shifted following the just-completed reassessment and appeals cycle for the north suburbs. Why is this important? Because the property tax bill you will receive in the coming weeks is not only affected by your property’s assessment but the assessments of other properties in your neighborhood too.
In 2022, my office reassessed properties in Evanston Township. At the beginning of this process, each property owner receives a Reassessment Notice containing an estimate of the value of the property. Then, property owners have an opportunity to appeal if they believe they were overvalued. The first round of appeals occurs at the Assessor’s Office, and the second round at the Cook County Board of Review. Once appeals are completed by the Board of Review, state law requires that I certify their changes, resulting in the final assessed values (AVs). The final AV is what will appear on your property tax bill this fall.
As a result of our reassessment of Evanston, its total AV rose 28% to $1,495M, with residential AV up 27% to $993M and non-residential up 30% to $502M. This growth reflects higher market prices and new building activity.
An increase in an individual property’s assessment does not necessarily cause an increase in its tax bill, for two reasons. First, if a property’s assessment increases at the same rate as others and local taxing bodies don’t increase levies, the property tax bill could remain steady. Secondly, if a property’s assessment increases, but by a lesser percent than other properties, and local taxing bodies don’t increase levies, the property tax bill could decrease.
However, the Assessor’s Office is not the final arbiter of appeals and assessment changes. Appeals that are granted at the Board of Review affect everyone else’s tax bills. Here’s why: The reductions given by the Board of Review decrease the total AV, which affects the tax rate, and increases the percentage of tax levies paid by homeowners. Before the Board of Review’s appeals, homeowners would have paid approximately 66% of the levy. After the Board of Review’s appeals, they are now scheduled to pay approximately 70%.
In other words, for every $1 of reduction that the Board of Review granted to residential properties, it granted $4 to non-residential properties. As a result, residential property owners bear more of the burden than they would have otherwise.
The good news is that appeal filings are down at the Assessor’s Office and the Board of Review Offices. In the tax year just completed, appeals at the Assessor’s Office were down 21% from 2019, and down 30% from the previous North Triad year of 2016. According to data released by the Board of Review, its appeals for this cycle were down 5% from 2019.
So, what happens after the appeal process? The Cook County Clerk calculates property tax rates for every unit of government in Cook County. Then, the County Treasurer sends out the Second Installment Property Tax Bills that are due December 1. Be sure to check the bottom left of your property tax bill to ensure you are receiving all the exemptions you qualify for. If you’re missing any exemptions, please visit cookcountyassessor.com/certificates-error so you can apply for a Certificate of Error, which will enable you to be refunded for property tax you may have overpaid.
So then how and where do we find out if our local taxing bodies are increasing levies or not? From what you’re saying, that sounds like the determining factor for whether the community should file appeals or not. This is the info you should give us if you’re genuinely trying to help us reduce our tax bills, but my gut says that’s not your goal nor that of the IL government.
Homeowners are going out of their way to file appeals because they want to save money on their ridiculously high tax bills. Now you’re saying the appeal process could actually cause us to pay more?? This is insane. Government is supposed to work with and for their people, not against them, and not cause them to go broke or lose their home.
So in other words, there is no good news whatsoever for homeowners. Property tax bills ALWAYS late! Maybe we should get a discount for late tax bills?
Taxes ALWAYS going up, simply because they can take whatever they need to fill their budget gaps.
Why is it that the tax bills have been late every year since he took office?
It’s sad that residents can be taxed out of their home and there is nothing they can do about it. Just because property values go up doesn’t mean it helps the homeowner unless they are looking to sell or refinance. It’s criminal that the state can demand that much of a significant increase with high inflation. Solution would be to vote these people out and elect someone that wants to keep people in illinois.
Why are homes that are 1100 square feet being taxed 8000 to 10000 dollars in South suburbs in dolton when other suburbs in southwest area are much larger and paying same thing people are being price out of there homes how can homes 80000 to 200000 be taxed like that. The burden being placed on lower income areas verses upper income community. This is a injustice that need to be rectified. Would like to know your response.
I would like to know also, I’m a resident of Dolton also and these tax hikes are ridiculous! My mortgage almost doubled due to increase.
What can be done to control the local taxing bodies from continuously increasing their levies?
Uh, reduce and/or eliminate services and operations maybe?