Taxing Times
Tax Spending for the 2023 Tax Bills
Lake County Property Tax bills are being mailed May 1st and should be received by the end of the week.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good News
Exemptions are increasing. The General Homestead Exemption (GHE) and Senior Homestead Exemption (SHE) are increasing. The GHE is increasing from 6,000 to 8,000. The SHE is increasing from 5,000 to 8,000. The GHE is granted to owner occupied primary residence. The SHE is granted to owner occupied primary residence to where the owner is 65 years or older. These exemptions reduced the taxable value of your property. The exemptions will be in place for tax year 2023 with taxes payable in 2024.
Seniors with both exemptions will receive the most benefit. Others with solely the GHE will receive less benefit. Effectively this increase in exemption “squeezes the balloon” shifting the tax burden from owner occupied properties to others such as rentals, commercial, and industrial taxpayers.
The Bad News
Under Illinois law tax spending will increase for tax year 2023 with taxes payable in 2024. Under the Illinois Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) local units of government can increase their spending by the consumer price index (CPI) or 5% whichever is less. As we all know, inflation is affecting everything including taxes. Given the current rate of inflation under the PTELL law spending will increase 5%. Again, it is very likely tax bills will increase 5%.
The Ugly
Tax Year 2023 is the Quadrennial Reassessment. Once every 4 years assessors are required to reevaluate all property values, bringing them to a fair cash value using the 3 years of preceding sales. Given the market increases we have seen over the past 3 years means there will be increases to most property assessed values.
Some properties received larger increases than others as reflected in the market. For higher priced properties our assessed values were closer to the actual market value and these properties may not have appreciated as much as other property groups. The lower priced properties have seen the biggest increases in market value and our assessments significantly lagged behind. I repeat the phrase, our once affordable township is no longer affordable.
Assessment Notices will be mailed September 21 The appeal deadline to file a formal appeal with the Lake County Board of Review is October 23. . I encourage you to contact my office with any questions.
We make every effort to simplify the process and provide instructional information on evaluating your assessment and filing an appeal. Please go to my website for instructional information. The Lake County website is an extremely useful site that has a wealth of information about property assessments, characteristic data and taxes. Both websites are below.
Comparisons and Tax Graphs
The Lake Villa Township Assessor Office website hosts the comparisons and tax graphs (link below). There are comparisons for spending, assessed values and tax rates for each taxing body in the Township. Also, tax graphs depict where your tax dollars are being spent. There are 5 graphs for the areas within the Township.
Exemptions Reduce Taxes
Be sure to check for exemptions on your tax bill. The most common exemptions are General Homestead, Senior Homestead, Senior Assessment Freeze, Disabled Person / Veteran and Home Improvement. On the bottom right side of the tax bill, the computation ladder lists the deductions in assessed value for each exemption. Also, the Property Search feature on the County website has a tab notating all exemptions. If you find you are missing an exemption, please contact my office.
Links
Lake Villa Township Assessor’s page
• Assessment and Spending Comparisons, informative articles
Lake County Website for Property Information
• Assessment, Real Estate Taxes, and Property Tax Extension data
http://www.tax.lakecountyil.gov
Jeffrey A. Lee
Lake Villa Township Assessor
Phone: 1-847-356-2383
Email: Assessor@LakeVillaAssessor.org
Clerk’s Office for more data
The Lake County Clerk Robin O’Connor’s office is responsible for computing the tax rates from the levy requests and district assessments. Their web site has a wealth of information; detail for each taxing jurisdiction; County-wide summaries; as well as historical data dating back to 2006
Their website is https://www.lakecountyil.gov/263/Tax-Extension
Treasurer’s’s Office for more data
The Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim’s office is responsible for printing the tax bills, collecting tax payments and dispersing taxes to the taxing bodies. For payment information, please visit the website is https://www.lakecountyil.gov/198/Treasurers-Office
Real Estate Taxes are due in two equal installment generally payable in the first week of June and September
Please mail your payment to:
Lake County Treasurer’s Office
18 N. County Street
Waukegan IL 60085
847-377-2323