Lower assessments don't mean less taxes
Chris Heichele's letter on Oct. 22 indicates understandable frustration with the real estate property tax assessment system, which seems to be out of sync with real market values. Every year the assessors' offices adjust assessed values broadly and then go on to publish a General Assessment every 4 years (quadrennial). The quadrennial is based on data compiled during the cycle, and attempts to adjust assessment more accurately by neighborhood. While most significant changes occur at the quadrennial, an assessor can adjust values during the interim years as well if a particular property changes in value significantly. An appeal to lower or raise a property's assessed value can also be filed each year by a property owner or taxing district etc. If you feel that the normal assessment process is not reacting adequately to volatile market conditions, you can consider filing an appeal. You will have to be able to prove the current assessment is not accurate based on a more timely evaluation.
If total property value within a taxing district goes down because of reduced market values, property tax revenue in that district does not go down with them, and Illinois' tax cap law has no relationship to assessed values. The tax cap law only regulates the amount a taxing district can levy. If assessed values eventually fall, the tax rate multipliers will simply be raised to generate the same revenue and then raised even higher to permit general additional new revenue within the constraints of the tax cap law. This means taxing districts can generally raise their levy up to the lesser of 5 percent or the Consumer Price Index plus approved referendums.
If you're hoping taxes will go down because your property is worth less now, it won't. Only restraint by the taxing districts in these troubled times or increased assessment formulas on nonresidential (commercial/industrial) properties will lower homeowner' tax bills.
There are two fundamental issues to debate in real estate property taxation; the size of the tax burden (levies) and the fairness of the assessment process that distributes the burden.
Charles Murphy
Glen Ellyn