By Mark Dawson
special to inside
Monday night the Wrightwood Neighbors Association (WNA) sponsored a gathering about the 2003 triennial property tax reassessment for Lake View Township (bordered by Devon, Fullerton, Western, and Lake Michigan) at the Seminary Avenue Community Church, 1110 W. Lill St.
Dana Marberry, Community Relations Manager for the Cook County Assessor's office, directed the meeting, and about 200 people filled the church. The meeting turned out to be calmer than earlier ones, but local residents still peppered public officials with questions for nearly two hours. Marberry also said that he believed that Lake View Township carries a disproportionate share of the city's tax burden.
The Cook County Assessor's office calculates the property assessments for each township every three years based on a statistical analysis of recent real estate sales in the community. The assessments, in turn, are used to calculate the tax rate for each property, which is a percentage of the total tax levy requested by the taxing bodies on the bill. About half of every property tax bill in Chicago goes to the Chicago Public Schools, and the rest is divided among the City, Cook County, the Park District, and other agencies. If a property assessment increases it does not automatically mean that the property tax charged to the property owner will increase next year by the same percentage.
Marberry and others spoke about the appeal process. Marberry noted that a homeowner who wants to appeal doesn't need to do anything more than check the box on his assessment letter saying he wants to appeal and then mail it back to the Assessor's office. The staff there will research the appeal for the property owner.
Marberry also said that most homeowners and owners of small buildings who want to appeal a reassessment do not need to hire an attorney to help. Marberry warned those present to avoid lawyers who charge a fee up front. He said over the years residents who file appeals on their own have typically enjoyed as much success as those who hire professionals. He also said that photographs, copies of leases, financial statements, and other additional documentation are usually not needed either, except for condominium associations or owners of commercial buildings.
Marberry said residents can manage their own appeals using information provided on the Cook County Assessor's Office web site, cookcountyassessor.com. They should look there for comparable properties, and consider the difference in assessments between these properties and their own. Look for buildings like your own that are close by, and that have a lower valuation. The person filing the appeal should also look to make sure that the Assessor's office has described his or her property correctly, and make sure that the Assessor has not overvalued it. If you bought a property six months ago for $450,000, you can appeal if the reassessment places the value at $600,000.
Condominium owners should file appeals collectively as associations. This is because the Assessor's office looks at condominium sales within a single building, and then values the entire building as one property based on these sales. Each condo owner's tax burden is the percentage of his or her ownership times the total tax liability for the property.
State Rep. John Fritchey addressed the reform plans in more detail. "What we don't need is another blue ribbon committee, another study, another panel discussion," Fritchey said. "If we are going to have meaningful tax reform, we need to create a more equitable system. What that means in plain terms is an income tax hike and sales tax hike."
One man noted that Lake View Township endured a 38 percent assessment increase in 2000, and another 42 percent increase in 2003, and wondered how the Assessor's office approaches issues of fairness and equity. "When do you look at this and say how much is enough for one community," he asked? Marberry agreed that Lake View Township does carry a disproportionate share of the tax burden for the city of Chicago. Most of the property tax revenue raised each year in Lake View Township does not return to the township in the form of services, but instead is spread out to other parts of the city.
"How can we as citizens go about changing the laws, and put a tax cap in place?" Les Gibson asked. "What you guys are doing is ridiculous. Over the last five assessments my taxes have increased at least 100 percent!"
Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley encouraged Gibson to direct his anger to some of the taxpayer reform groups that have sprung up in recent years, such as the Tax Reform Action Coalition (TRAC), and to provoke an ongoing discussion with their elected officials. Quigley noted that not much has changed since the turmoil that erupted from the last reassessment in Lake View in 2000.
"There must be at some point a cap in tax assessments," said Forrest Claypool, Cook County Commissioner. "We are driving the middle class out of the city. We are driving people out of their homes who have lived here for years, and expected to retire here."
But Marberry and others noted that some property tax reforms create other problems. The County created exemptions to benefit certain classes of homeowners, namely long term residents, senior citizens, and owner occupants. But the tax levy itself doesn't change, and government spending continues to grow so that while these exemptions make life easier for some residents, they simply end up shifting the tax burden. "Keep in mind that if you file an appeal, and you succeed, the money still has to come from somewhere," said Marberry.
According to Claypool, a number of parties inside and out of government are looking at ways to fix the system. One proposal includes reducing property taxes across the state by 25 percent, while increasing the state income tax and broadening the sales tax to make up the shortfall in revenue.
In the past both gubernatorial candidate Dawn Clark Netsch and Governor Jim Edgar tried to introduce tax reform but "both measures went nowhere," according to Quigley. Fritchey noted that Illinois taxpayers don't trust their elected officials. They fear that if they agree to an income tax increase to offset property taxes, politicians will just end up raising property taxes again in a few years anyway.
In response to a question about whether DuPage and Lake County taxpayers would support a "reform" that would in effect mean that they would end up subsidizing the Chicago Public School System, Fritchey replied that taxpayers across the state, struggling with similar problems as those in Lake View, are beginning to see that the state needs to base funding for schools on taxpayers' income, and not on the value of their real estate.
Barb Head agrees. Head is the president of TRAC, a group she helped to start three years ago. TRAC is sponsoring the Chicago Tea Party on Aug. 14. "I'm heartened and encouraged by the response not only of the citizens, but also by the elected officials," Head said. "Clemenceau once said 'I need to find out where the people are going so I can lead them there.' That's the reason for the meeting on the 14th—to find out where the people are going. The Tea Party is sponsored by TRAC, will be from 6 to 8 p.m. at the David Kenos monument in Lincoln Park, 1850 N. Clark St.
When asked why she thought the tax reform effort would work this time when it nothing happened the last time Lake View was reassessed in 2000, Head said, "Residents see the need for reform. A lot of the people who come to these meetings are scared right now. They see their neighbors leaving through gentrification. We aren't asking for tax breaks, but for the system to be fair and predictable."
Those present were directed to call 311 for information, visit the Assessor's office web site, or visit the Chicago Tax Assistance Center at City Hall (Room 100).
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