District 95 may help Lake Zurich contest property tax reductions

Lake Zurich Unit District 95 is expected to join village government in contesting efforts by a commercial property owner seeking to reduce taxes.

District 95 board members may formally vote Thursday to enter into a cost-sharing agreement with the village, which is contesting two property tax appeals filed by Fidelity Group for Rand Road commercial sites. Earlier this month, board members tentatively agreed on a proposal to provide financial assistance for the village's effort.

If the appeals result in reductions, District 95 could be required to return $214,429.50, plus interest, to Fidelity, officials said. The appeals are before the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board.

District 95's assistant superintendent of business and operations, Vicky Cullinan, said during a Feb. 11 presentation to the school board that it could take up to four years for the state agency to render a decision.

"In speaking with our lawyers, the (state) property tax appeal board is generally not friendly to taxing bodies," Cullinan said. "And generally, the beneficiary of it is the appealer, not the taxing body. So, when you do intervene, your hope is that unless there is something really wrong with the appraisal or there is a bad appraisal, which doesn't happen very often, usually the settlement is somewhere in the middle between what they ask for and what the assessment is."

Village Square Shopping Center and Deerpath Court Shopping Center are among the properties involved in the appeals.

In December, Lake Zurich village board trustees passed a resolution authorizing intervention in all property tax appeals from 2014 through 2016 before the Lake County Board of Review and the state agency.

"We had to do it or we'd lose our place at the table," Lake Zurich Mayor Thomas Poynton told the District 95 board.

District 95 would chip in toward a projected $10,000 legal tab for the village in the tax appeal cases. Cullinan said additional money might be required if an appraiser is needed.

Both property tax appeals for the Rand Road commercial sites by Fidelity could result in a combined assessed valuation reduction of $4 million. Lake Zurich management analyst Kyle Kordell wrote in a memo that the appeal should be contested "due to the large dollar amount associated with this potential reduction and the negative financial impact such a reduction would have on public finances."