Schaumburg assessor struggles with taxpayer anger

In seven years as Schaumburg Township assessor, John Lawson had never had to call on police officers for crowd control.

Until Friday, when angry taxpayers stormed his office upset about their rising tax bills.

Lawson said Monday he plans to continue relying on the help of Hoffman Estates police through the rest of the week as residents continue to show up in droves, anguished over their latest Cook County tax bills.

“We've had people out the door before, but not people literally crying that they didn't know where the money was going to come from,” Lawson said.

The saddest thing for him personally, Lawson said, was that there was nothing he could do for about 80 percent of the people who've shown up to complain. Most people's property assessments have actually lowered, he said, though their bills have gone up between $1,000 and $3,500 per household.

Some of that is the result of the state equalizer being the highest it's ever been in Cook County. And a large number residents in the village of Schaumburg were unaware the town had imposed its first property tax late last year.

Whatever the source of their complaints, they turned to Lawson's office to vent their anger. The township administrator and people in the assessor's office were even threatened with physical harm over the phone, he said, leading to the hiring of a police officer to keep the crowd civil and allow only three people at a time into the assessor's office.

“I think a lot of people are misinformed,” Lawson said. “They think this office is the one that assesses their property.”

The only residents Lawson's office is able to help are those who are missing some proper exemption on their bills, like a homeowner's or senior exemption. Beyond that, the only thing people can do is wait to appeal their assessment next spring.

Lawson said he's constantly disappointed by how few members of the township's 145,000 households ever attend the tax appeal seminars his office holds.

“We put these seminars on and no one comes,” he said.

Last spring, Lawson challenged Cook County officials to get the tax bills issued on time this year, but again they arrived just before the Christmas season, he said.