Increase in tax rate is puzzling

When home assessments go down, the tax rates go up because as taxpayers we still need to meet the taxing bodies’ budgets that were voted on and passed by the board members. Well, as it stands in Lake County, the rates went up for everyone, but who got walloped with the highest increase? Wauconda. Wauconda’s total tax rate in 2009 was $6.93 for each $100 of equalized assessed value, and on this year’s tax bill, 2010, it is $8.17.

When Wauconda’s fire department wanted to collect their own tax money, it was voted on and passed. The village would no longer need to collect for the fire department as they had been doing all along in the past. So now on everyone’s tax bill you will see a separate line item for Wauconda’s Fire Protection District.

So let’s look at the village of Wauconda on your tax bill, now that they don’t have to collect for the fire department, their budget should have gone down, right? Nope, not the case. As a matter of fact their rate went up as well. The village of Wauconda’s tax rate alone for 2009 still collecting for the fire department was .7350; this year while not collecting for the fire department it’s .7720, still an increase. How does this make any sense? How could the village’s budget go up when they released a big part of their tax burden, the fire district? This usually is referred to as double dipping.

Craig Cymerman

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