Northwest suburban homeowners can expect property tax increases of 5 to 10 percent this year, far less than increases of 30 percent and more predicted for the south and west suburbs, according to tax rates released Tuesday by the Cook County clerk.
The county will use those rates to determine second installment real estate tax bills, which will begin landing in homeowners` mailboxes next week. Seventeen townships in the south and west suburbs are enduring the same ordeal that the north and northwest suburbs went through last year, when homeowners were jolted by sharply higher reassessments.
Tax increases this year are likely to renew cries for property tax relief in the form of a 5 percent tax cap for suburban Cook County. The state legislature recently approved the cap for the collar counties, but exempted Cook County at the insistence of Chicago Democrats.
”I`m sick and tired of politicians picking our pockets,” said Carol Tesmer, the Palatine representative to the Northwest Tax Watch.
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Calling a tax increase of even 5 percent ”exorbitant,” Tesmer said,
”Not only are retirees like myself having a problem, but how will young couples be able to afford a mortgage? When is it going to stop? When are these taxing bodies going to tighten their belts?”
Elsewhere in the northwest region, perhaps no one was more astounded by the tax rate increases awarded Tuesday than Rudy Hempel, a trustee of the Barrington Woods Sanitary District.
The county gave the sanitary district a whopping 92 percent increase in its tax rate, the biggest increase of any northwest area taxing body. The increase would show up as an extra $100 on the property tax bill of the owner of a home assessed at $150,000 market value.
”I don`t understand it, quite frankly, except that we do have a one-time $10,000 note for rehabilitation work to be paid off, and maybe that`s the way the county handled it,” Hempel said.
The district serves 186 households in the Barrington Woods subdivision, recently annexed by Palatine, and in Brentwood Estates in unincorporated Palatine Township.
Most other taxing jurisdictions saw their tax rates go up by less than 5 percent. But homeowners generally will have to pay taxes 5 to 10 percent higher than before because a higher tax multiplier is being used this year.
Even in areas where the overall tax rate declined, such as the part of Hanover Park served by Unit School District 46 and the Ontarioville Fire District, taxes are expected to go up by 4.4 percent.
If it`s any consolation to those on the Cook County side of Hanover Park who can expect some of the highest property taxes in the northwest suburbs, their tax bills will still likely be lower than on the Du Page side of town, said Robert Whyte, finance director for the village.
”We hear suggestions that (Du Page) residents can expect to pay 50 to 60 percent more real estate taxes than Cook County residents,” Whyte said.
As for who is responsible for the high taxes, he said, ”It`s certainly not the village. We`re one of the lowest villages around in our tax rate. It`s the schools people are complaining about.”
Whyte referred to Unit District 46 in Hanover Township and Elementary District 54 in Schaumburg Township.
District 46 has levied to the maximum amount allowed by law short of a referendum, and defends its rate as necessary to support its booming enrollment, up by 1,000 last year to 28,419.
The district is building three new elementary schools in Bartlett alone, and enlarging an existing school in Streamwood. Residents of those two municipalities approach Hanover Park in the amount of property taxes they must bear.
Those shouldering the region`s highest property taxes live in Unit 46 or Elementary Districts 54 or 15 in Hanover, Schaumburg and Palatine Townships, respectively, a tax rate analysis shows.
Those with the lowest property taxes live in Unit School District 220 in Barrington and Palatine Townships and Elementary School District 59 in Elk Grove Township.
The owner of a home assessed with a market value of $150,000 can expect to pay up to $4,635 in property taxes to Cook County if the house is in Hanover Park, but only $2,871 if the dwelling is a few miles to the north along Barrington Road, in South Barrington.
The disparity in taxes from one community to another is nowhere more evident than inside Elk Grove Village. Residents who live on the west side of town, in District 54, can expect to pay roughly 30 percent higher taxes than their counterparts on the east side, in District 59.
Throughout Cook County, taxpayers will be paying more to fund county government and services, despite the cost-cutting election campaign of Cook County Board President Richard Phelan. But the 12 percent increase in the county tax bill resulted from last year`s budget passed under Phelan`s predecessor, George Dunne.
Taxes paid to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District also will increase, by about 11 percent. Nicholas Melas, board president for the water district, said Tuesday that the increase is primarily the result of $100 million in construction bonds the district sold last November to finance work on two sections of the Deep Tunnel project.
If the news is unwelcome for some taxpayers, it`s also being delivered later than usual.
The county treasurer`s office said that it plans to begin mailing real estate bills to 1.5 million property owners later this week, and expects to have all bills mailed out by Aug. 6. They will be due Sept. 6. Late payments will be subject to a 1.5 percent monthly penalty.
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