Taxpayers in some west and south suburbs can expect steep increases in their bills when they begin arriving in the mail next week, and that could bring renewed calls for legislative reforms to cap property taxes in Cook County.
Riding the crest of last year`s quadrennial property reassessment in 17 west and south suburban townships, many municipalities, school districts and other taxing bodies in those areas will take in substantially more revenue even though most tax rates declined. In suburbs like River Forest, Orland Park and Oak Park, tax increases of 25 or 30 percent may be common.
In Chicago and the north and northwest suburbs, taxpayers can expect more modest increases, though many property owners still may see their tax bills increase beyond the rate of inflation. The north and northwest suburbs experienced large tax increases last year after a 1989 reassessment. Chicago property will be reassessed this year.
The increases could provide fodder for Republican lawmakers, who have been seeking a property-tax cap for suburban Cook County similar to that signed into law last week by Gov. Jim Edgar for the collar counties. Democrats have balked at the proposal.
”I hope I`m wrong, but we`re looking at a 25 percent jump in tax bills for individual homeowners,” said Worth Township Assessor William Conners, whose area includes southwest suburbs such as Oak Lawn and Evergreen Park.
”And if that happens, there`s going to be a war out there.
”The last time this happened, there was a big battle out here. Protest groups formed. Independent political parties were established. But people still had to pay their tax bills, and after a while, things died down.”
According to figures released Tuesday by the Cook County clerk`s office, most of the local governments outside the reassessed areas increased their tax rates by less than 5 percent. But because of a 4 percent increase in the multiplier, the factor used to equalize property assessments across the state, that should translate into tax increases for most homeowners of between 5 and 10 percent.
”There has been a lot of moderation in the growth of tax bills,” said Toni Hartrich, research director for the Civic Federation, a taxpayers watchdog group. ”Most governments have not increased by the kind of factors that they have in the past.”
Chicago homeowners will see their bills increase by a little more than 2 percent, according to County Clerk David Orr, in part because of an increase of nearly $94 million in property taxes for the public schools.
At the same time, the city`s property-tax collections will decline about 4 percent.
In Cook County, taxpayers will be paying 12 percent more to fund county government and services despite the cost-cutting election campaign of County Board President Richard Phelan.
This year`s county tax bill is based on the budget passed under Phelan`s predecessor, George Dunne.
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Taxes property owners will pay to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District also will increase by about 11 percent. Nicholas Melas, board president of the district, said the increase is primarily the result of $100 million in construction bonds sold in November to finance work on two sections of the Deep Tunnel project.
If the news is unwelcome for some taxpayers, it is also being delivered later than usual. Normally the tax rates are released by the county clerk in mid-July and the bills mailed out by the county treasurer about a week or two later.
County officials blamed this year`s late bills on the high volume of complaints lodged by property owners in the reassessed areas with the Board of (tax) Appeals.
The county treasurer`s office said it plans to begin mailing bills to 1.5 million property owners later this week and expects to have all bills out by Aug. 6.
By law, taxpayers must have 30 days in which to pay the bills. As a result, taxpayers will be required to pay their bills by Sept. 6 if they want to avoid the 1.5 percent monthly penalty.
For taxpayers in the west and south suburban townships that were reassessed last year, the higher bills result in part because taxing bodies normally use the growth in property values to derive additional revenue.
In River Forest, for example, the owner of a home valued at $150,000 would have paid $5,247 last year. If the assessed value of that home reflects the 50 percent increase experienced by all residential property in the suburb, the tax bill will climb nearly 38 percent to more than $7,200 despite the fact that the overall tax rate dropped by almost 15 percent.
In Orland Park, the owner of that same $150,000 home would have paid $4,124 in taxes last year. If the new assessment mirrors the 24 percent increase for all homes in the region, that tax bill will total $5,146 this year, an increase of almost 25 percent.
School district officials take the blame for much of the increases. But they attribute it to a tax system they say requires them to borrow and make cuts to get them through the years prior to a reassessment and then seek big tax increases when property is revalued.
”It`s sort of like sticker shock when someone hasn`t bought a car for a while,” said William Farley, business manager at Oak Park-River Forest High School.
By contrast, most homeowners in Evanston or Des Plaines, which saw large increases last year, are likely to see tax bills rise only about 7 percent.
One group counting on taxpayer discontent are Republican lawmakers, who have laid claim to the property-tax issue, asserting it was the Democrats who tried to scuttle any meaningful efforts to pass tax relief for Cook County during the spring session.
While tax increases in the collar counties have been limited to no more than 5 percent annually, the legislature granted Cook County a one-year freeze in property assessments.
Democrats contend that measures such as tax caps will do little to curb rising property taxes.
While the Republicans were unable to cap Cook County taxes, some lawmakers contend the higher bills may be just what they need now.
”What the increases will do is bring into sharper focus the fact that we were not permitted to have caps for Cook County,” said state Sen. Aldo DeAngelis (R-Olympia Fields). ”I look for a substantial amount of unrest and human cry, and as early as the fall, we could be revisiting this issue.”