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Cook County Property Taxes up 4.2% on average

(21 posts)
  • Started 2 years ago by ChrisHajer
  • Latest reply from sixrealms
1 2 3

  1. mr
    Member

    mrt:

    Don't look at the tax rates, look at the dollar amount of your taxes. The tax rate is actually "backed into". They take the levy and divide it by the total assessed values in the tax district, and come up with the rate. Given that assessments are supposed to be down (unless that applies next year), I don't know what caused the rate to go down. If the assessed values went down, the rate is supposed to go up. It is possible that D96 voluntarily decreased their levy as their current rates are generating a surplus, but I wouldn't count on it.

    I do know that there are all sorts of adjustments to the assessed valuations though - for example, TIF values are subtracted out. There are other things that happen - they do things to adjust the second half of the bill for things that were unanticipated in the first half.

    There are some pretty good explanations on the internet on how the tax bills are computed - I found one in the Lake County site.

    As I understand it, this is the first time we are being billed for the RB referendum that was passed a couple of years ago. Also, the D96 tax increase was phased into over a five year period. I wonder if this is how the RB tax increase is going to work.

    Posted Thursday Oct 29, 2009 15:33 #

  2. mrt
    Member

    thanks, mr, for the reply. the dollar amts for d96 and d208 sure enough WERE higher for the '2008 tax' column than the '2007 tax' column.

    d96's dollar amt was up 17 pct 2007 to 2008 and d208's dollar amt was up 24 pct - both despite the lower rates. I pay a final dollar amt and not a rate. :)

    Posted Thursday Oct 29, 2009 17:36 #

  3. mr
    Member

    mrt, just to carry this a little further, my increase for d208 is 18.85% and my increase for d96 is 12.62%. The reason that our increases are not the same is because my assessment, as a percent of the total assessments in the two taxing bodies changed at a different rate than yours.

    Posted Thursday Oct 29, 2009 18:28 #

  4. Fran
    Member

    Please do not compare how taxes are computed for 2 different counties. They will be different. In Cook Co., the tax bills we receive in February are exactly half of the previous year's total taxes. In 2008 Riverside was reassessed. Cook Co. has a triennial reassessment period and prior to 2008 we were reassessed in 2005 so they took house sales info from 2005, 2006 and 2007. Legally they cannot take any info past January 1, 2008 to establish the 2008 assessed value. The housing market didn't really start to fall until 2007. Because the downturn was so dramatic Cook Co. had a special reassessment in 2009 and Riverside's assessed values were reduced. The tax bills we received today are for 2008, the higher assessed value. Remember in cook Co. we pay in arrears. We have also been paying for the D208 referendum for a few years. I can't remember exactly but I believe it's been part of our tax bill since the 2006. I hope this clarifies things.

    Posted Thursday Oct 29, 2009 18:28 #

  5. mr
    Member

    Fran, thanks, but I used Lake County to better understand certain aspects of the process - not the bills themselves. So many people think that if their assessment goes up, their taxes automatically go up and the taxing body gets more money. They are always surprised when the converse is not true. The Lake County web site had a pretty good explanation of how adjustments to the total tax base are made - for example TIFs.

    I suspect that most people don't understand the equalizer either. It is largely used in a formula that determines how much state aid we get for our schools.

    I called D96 because I was stunned by my increase last year. I was told that it was a phased in tax increase, and I believe it was phased in over 5 years. I looked at my records and I see the first installment looks like it came in 2005. I hope we have seen the last of the big increases for D96, but I am not so sure.

    That across the board change in Cook County's assessments goes into effect on next years taxes, if I read the communications I received from the assessor's office correctly.

    Posted Thursday Oct 29, 2009 18:48 #

  6. CuriousResident
    Member

    Wow, shocker is right!

    Looks like I am on the the unlucky side of the average in Riverside; my bill (dollar amount) is up 7.5%!

    The assessment is up 16%...feels like someone had their thumb on the scale~

    The other interesting piece to this is the dollar amount going to the Village of Riverside increased 4.8%. Is this based on the "flat rate" against the assessment? If so, I wonder if there will be an increase in "revenue" for the village coming out of this...

    Posted Friday Oct 30, 2009 09:06 #

  7. mrt
    Member

    curious, do you mean that your 2nd half dollar amount is up 7.5 pct from the 1st half of this year?

    johnm said:

    There's also the issue of the homeowner's exemption being phased out, which is the responsibility of Springfield, not Cook County.

    JohnM: do you know details about the phase-out of the HO exemption? When will that be occurring, and at what rate is the phase out?

    Posted Friday Oct 30, 2009 11:11 #

  8. ChrisHajer
    Member

    I thought the phase out of the homeowner's exemption was in Chicago only this year, which is why Daley was giving people cash in exchange. I guess the legislators have control over this?

    http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=330286&src=1

    Posted Friday Oct 30, 2009 11:18 #

  9. mrt
    Member

    from the daily herald article that chris referenced, it seemed that it was speaking of an exemption to a 7 pct assessment cap...It later did mention the HO exemption, but it said the HO exemption will actually RISE.

    the upcoming expiration of the 7 percent assessment cap. South-suburban homeowners were eligible for a $33,000 exemption this year. That was limited to $26,000 in the Northern suburbs and $20,000 in the city. Unless the General Assembly votes to extend it, that exemption will expire in the city next year and be trimmed to $20,000 in the northern suburbs and $26,000 in the southern region, then expire entirely for the northern suburbs the year after that and for the southern suburbs the year after that.

    In exchange, the basic homeowner's exemption will rise from $5,000 to $6,000, but most homeowners will definitely see that increase their annual property taxes.

    From what Fran said above (thank you, Fran), I guess it was the reassessment from the last assessment (when the real estate bubble had not yet burst), that caused the 33 pct jump for me. Trick or Treat from Cook County. The article's last sentence was...

    Aside from this year's CPI hike and reassessments, Vaselopulos said the only likely cause of surprising increases in a tax bill would be the passage of a local referendum.

    Posted Friday Oct 30, 2009 11:36 #

  10. anonymous
    Member

    There have been too many tricks passed by the government and not enough treats.

    Posted Friday Oct 30, 2009 11:49 #

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