High taxes aren't the assessor's fault

People do not like property taxes. So when they increase dramatically, as they have in the past eight to 10 years, it is no surprise that the public and politicians running for office, call for cutting them.

The first place they turn is to the assessors, who places a value on their real estate which has a direct correlation to the amount of tax they pay. People often dispute their assessments, doing extensive research into values of comparable homes mainly to get their property tax reduced. Because assessors are empowered by state statues to determine home values, the process is always subjective, done by a mass appraisal technique and can raise privacy issues if allowed in everyone's home in order to fully appraise it.

The rapid rising property values in the past eight years were certainly welcome to homeowners, since they represented an increase in wealth. That wealth was on paper but turned into cash if you sold your property or took out a home equity loan.

As the property values shoot up so have the taxes, thus taking a bigger share of our disposal income. This is why homeowners on fixed incomes, typically older homeowners, are often the most vociferous opponents of property taxes.

Ultimately, politicians and voters must face the reality that there is no free lunch. In Grant Township, there where four tax increase referendums on the ballot the last election, and they all passed. The best way to bring about tax relief is to reduce government and government spending. If these four referendums failed, every property owner would have seen a decrease in their tax bill.

As a note, if every home in Grant Township decreases 20 percent in assessed value in 2008, your tax bill next year will stay the same or go up by the Tax Cap (CPI) amount. Think about it…teachers, firemen, and policemen will not take pay cuts. Gasoline, electric, heating bills, insurance, etc. for schools and government offices will not decrease. All these agencies will seek to receive the same or more tax dollars next year and every year thereafter.

The obvious problem with all of the relief proposals made by politicians in office or running for office is that they don't curtail spending. So tax revenues must be raised, sales tax, income tax, property tax, or whatever other tax they can come up with.

Increased tax bills are not caused by your local assessor; address these issues with your local school boards, town boards, townships, county board, forest preserve, etc.

Walter Kubalanza

Grant Township Assessor