Accountability
Forest Preserves
Public Safety
Cook County Budget
Forest Pres. Budget
Property Tax Appeal
Health & Hospitals
Policy Resolutions

Many north suburban homeowners whose assessments soared in 2004 will find that the 7 percent assessment cap is again sparing them from the tax whiplash that could result from skyrocketing home prices.
But most homeowners also won't see any reprieve this year from steadily rising property taxes -- as was often the case when taxpayers were pummeled hard once every three years.
In Evanston, the hypothetical owner of a "$200,000 home" that was reassessed at $260,000 in 2004, a 30 percent increase, would see a 4 percent increase in the 2005 tax bill, according to a Pioneer Press analysis of tax rates released last week by the Cook County Clerk's office. The total tax bill would rise from $6,806 to $7,073. The same homeowner would have seen a 2 percent increase last year on the first tax bill to reflect the 2004 reassessment.
(Values assigned by the Cook County Assessor's office typically fall between 50 and 70 percent of what the home actually would draw on the marketplace.)
Actual tax implications vary from homeowner to homeowner, depending on the value of the home, the size of the assessment increase and any local quirks, such as a successful tax referendum that gave a school district or other government the authority to raise taxes.
Because each reassessment reshuffles the tax burden, individual homeowners may see larger-than-average increases or even decreases in their 2005 tax bills.
"What that means is that the proportional amount that you are paying relative to all the other taxpayers in the community is changing," said Bill Vaselopulos, the county's director of tax extension.
In most north and northwest suburbs of Cook County, composite tax rates fell because of rising property values and a 6.1 percent increase in the state-imposed equalization factor. That equalization factor, often called the multiplier, is set by the Illinois Department of Local Government Affairs to bring assessments on average up to the level required by state law, or 33 percent of market value.
Already at a record high in 2004, the multiplier reached a new high of 2.7320 on the 2005 property tax bills, driving up the taxable values on all residential, commercial and industrial properties by 6.1 percent over 2004.
Contributing to the rise in tax bills throughout the suburbs was a higher tax cap that allowed school districts, park districts and many other governments to put dibs on more property tax dollars.
This year tax-capped governments were allowed to ask for 3.3 percent more from taxpayers -- a higher amount than the 1.9 and 2.4 limits that applied in 2004 and 2003, respectively.
Voter-approved referendums and bond issues allowed some districts to exceed those tax limits.
In Skokie School District 69, for instance, the owner of a home valued by the assessor at $210,000 can expect to pay about $535 more, or a total of $2,394 to the school district this year following the passage of a tax hike referendum in March. District 69 homeowners who live in the Morton Grove portion of the district will be hit with a sizable increase from the village as well.
Cook County has used the "7 percent" relief measure to cushion homeowners from the tax jolt that otherwise could result from a sudden tax shift in what the assessor's office has termed an "overheated" real estate market.
"What has happened in the past few years is that residential properties really have skyrocketed," growing at a faster pace than commercial and industrial properties, said Vaselopulos, during a press briefing to explain the new rates.
The "7 percent cap" theoretically limits the increase in a property's taxable value to 7 percent a year, or roughly 22.5 percent during the three-year cycle between reassessments. However, the relief comes in the form of an adjustable homeowner exemption that itself is capped at $20,000.
Wealthier suburban homeowners, or those with large assessment increases, often reach the $20,000 limit so the cap does not apply to the full increase.
Whether the measure will spare north suburban homeowners from a possible double whammy on 2007 tax bills remains a large unknown.
In May, the Illinois House of Representatives rejected an extension of the 7 percent cap the day before the legislature's adjournment. The measure is expected to come up again in the fall session after the November election.
If the assessment cap is not extended through the next reassessment cycle, north suburban homeowners will receive tax bills in 2008 based on their full assessment value, picking up whatever portion remained from the 2004 reassessment along with any increase assigned during the 2007 reassessment.