Games played on property valuations

On Dec. 1, I paid my second Cook County real estate tax bill installment. I still cannot believe my tax went up 67%. In a DH Nov. 10 article “How assessments, appeals affect tax bills” comment, the assessor tried to explain the increase by blaming the Board of Review for reducing non-residential AV by 20% while only reducing residential AV by 2%. Although true, he failed to highlight that his office increased residential AV by 30% to begin with. His new shiny “Dashboard” showed this.

The assessment appeal process does not work (IMO). Your neighbor with an almost identical home may be assessed thousands of dollars less than your home. You submit an appeal based on comparable properties in your neighborhood, and it is rejected - once, twice, and by the BOR. Why is there no effort to try to equalize values and minimize the impact of huge increases and annual appeals? I wonder if those legal firms who will submit your appeal for you have any better luck.

I know taxing bodies determine how much tax levy they need to operate and my share is based on my AV. I understand the goal of shifting more real estate tax burden on non-residential properties. And I understand inflation increases costs for everyone. Maybe the reassessment of the other two-thirds of Cook County properties will balance this out in the next two years. But right now, it seems like the assessor and the BOR are playing “Wack-a-Mole” with our AV and resulting tax bills.

Another side of this story is that over the last few months there has been more attention to senior driving tests than real estate tax bills. Maybe seniors have more discretionary money than time.

Joe Celosky

Hoffman Estates