My property tax bill arrived in the mail the other day. I sent my check in right away—it was the least I could do to thank Mayor Daley and Todd Stroger for giving me so much to write about over the years.
The hike can’t be blamed on a rise in county or city spending, which stayed relatively flat this year.
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According to my tax bill, my property is worth $562,620—but that’s way off base, according to Barb Head, a real estate agent and a property-tax activist who helped found the community group Tax Reform Action Coalition. Head, who’s seen my house, says, “You’d probably get around $400,000, tops, if you put it on the market.”
The next line on the tax bill, the “assessment level,” points to a partial answer. Property owners aren’t taxed at the full value of their property. The tax rate is applied to only a fraction of the home’s value, or what tax experts call its assessable value. In Cook County, homeowners are now taxed on 10 percent of their home’s value.
“I’d say don’t look at the property value that’s on the bill,” says Marberry. “Concentrate on the assessed value.”
Why? Well, I’d like to blame it on my wife. But truth be told I just never got around to it—I was too busy writing all those TIF stories. As a result, my wife and I, like all the other chumps in the county who didn’t appeal their assessments, wind up subsidizing the tax breaks the county gave to all the taxpayers who did.
Houlihan’s stepping down in a month and will be replaced by former Board of Review commissioner Joseph Berrios—the same Joe Berrios I recommended you not vote for in the November 2 election. The guy I didn’t endorse is now in charge of assessing the value of my property.
