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player ready...Siemens Medical Systems Inc. filed a lawsuit last week against the Cook County assessor, treasurer and clerk, claiming the company’s manufacturing facility in Hoffman Estates is being assessed at a higher level than what had been guaranteed under a special county ordinance.
That ordinance, which has been amended several times since it was first passed in 1984, is designed to encourage industrial development in Cook County by offering lower property assessment levels for a certain amount of time. The standard level for manufacturing companies is 36 percent.
Siemens Medical Systems moved its Nuclear Medicine Group to Hoffman Estates in 1990. The company, 2501 N. Barrington Rd., develops and markets nuclear medicine products.
It was eligible for a 16 percent assessment level for eight years, and then 30 percent for the next four years. The company claims it was only assessed at 16 percent for 6 1/2 years, and that it was wrongly assessed at 30 percent in 1996.
A spokesperson for the assessor’s office declined to elaborate on the suit, except to say there is a difference in the interpretation of when the county’s ordinance took effect for Siemens.