For years, local governments and school districts across Cook County fed their needs with the funding equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet: property taxes.
But the days of double-digit increases in property taxes are fast becoming a blurry memory. Political pressures, a less mercurial real estate market and property-tax caps have combined to mute increases for many Cook County property owners.
The tax rates released Wednesday by Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office show this trend is continuing.
Though there are exceptions, taxpayers across Cook County can expect to see only moderate increases in the bills they will begin receiving this week. The bills are due Sept. 19.
Despite the fact that much of west Cook County was reassessed, the tax rates for townships in the western portion of the county generally dropped.
Oak Park, which saw a 10 percent increase in its assessed value from 1994 to 1996, had a rate decrease of about 4 percent.
Meanwhile, residents of Chicago face a modest rate increase of 1.2 percent. That means the owner of home with a market value of $100,000 will see a property-tax increase to $2,829 from $2,755.
Analysts said city residents “shouldn’t be lulled to sleep” by the small bump.
Next year, the city will be reassessed, said Myer Blank, director of policy analysis for the Civic Federation, and if you live in a hot neighborhood such as Wicker Park, where property values have doubled, “you may see a larger bill next year.”
Overall, the 850 taxing bodies in Cook County–from the City of Chicago to the smallest sanitary district–will receive about $7 billion from property taxes this year.
That amount would undoubtedly be greater were it not for the widespread use of tax caps.
Lemont Township, which experienced about a 17 percent boost in property values last year–the highest rate of increase of any Cook County township–reduced its tax rate by about 1.6 percent.
Even in suburban areas that were not reassessed, the tax-rate increases were minimal or decreased.
In Evanston, tax rates dropped by almost 1 percent. In Wilmette, depending on the school district, the rates were practically flat, decreasing or increasing by less than 1 percent.
Implemented in 1995 by the state, tax caps limit hundreds of taxing bodies to increases in their levies to no greater than 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less in a given year. This year, the ceiling was the inflation rate, or 2.5 percent.
According to Bill Vaselopulos, tax-extension supervisor for Orr’s office, the cap in Cook County resulted in $79 million in savings for taxpayers in 254 taxing districts.
Even home-rule communities, which are exempt from the cap, have felt its political presence.
Officials in Oak Park, which is exempt, said residents will see a slight increase, an average of between $8 to $20, in their tax bills.
“In the spirit of the tax caps, we’ve tried to keep our levy requests as low as possible,” said Fred Pospisil, a Village Board member.
Lower tax rates don’t necessarily result in lower property-tax bills. The rates are only one factor in an equation that also includes the assessed value of property. A year-to-year drop in the tax rate generally means bills will be stable or only slightly higher.
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Even in parts of the county where the reassessment brought higher property values, owners won’t necessarily see substantially larger tax bills.
Robert Madonia, superintendent of Komarek District 94 in North Riverside, which serves about 350 children, said the district’s tax rate dropped, countering a valuation boost due to the reassessment.
He said that in his district, which like many has hiked its levy to the maximum allowable level, the increase falls short of covering rising costs such as the price of books and utilities.
“My feeling is the tax caps are too limiting to school districts because our budgets are increasing by almost 5 percent,” Madonia said. “Yet we’ve only been able to increase the levy by 2 to 3 percent. We have to make up the difference somehow. That often means dipping into the reserves.”
School officials in Bellwood School District 88, which serves about 3,200 students in the western suburbs, face a double whammy.
Not only are they bound by the tax cap but voters in the district defeated a bond proposition this year that would have increased the education funding rate.
“I think the tax cap hurts everybody, but especially the districts that are deficit finance districts such as ours,” said Ed White, the business manager for the Bellwood district.
While many taxing districts are scraping by under the cap, some have persuaded voters to approve millions of dollars for new projects.
In voting to approve the sale of a combined $55 million in general obligation bonds, Lemont residents have agreed to shoulder the expense of a population boom and a demand for public services unlike any there since the coming of the Illinois and Michigan Canal 150 years ago.
Mayor Richard Kwasneski, whose only direct involvement is with the municipal portion of the tax bills, said residents shouldn’t be surprised to see increases in their property-tax bills.
“Schools are being built. The library is being built. Now, we’ve got to begin to pay for those things,” Kwasneski said.