No deciphering the 'non-user friendly' or 'obscure' tax bill
When the property tax bill cometh, I normally listen for my husband's scream, drop a hand of commiseration on his shoulder and forget about it. Compelled by an odd masochism this year, I studied it instead. Big mistake.
The first news seemed good. Our assessed value was the same. Beyond that, because of politicized multipliers that defy explanation, the equalized assessed value actually went down. I know the housing market has crashed, but governments don't generally react that quickly, especially if it might mean less money for them. Still, the number was in my favor, suggesting I should ask no questions.
No complaints with the Northwest Mosquito Abatement District. They actually sprayed three or four times this summer in my neighborhood, well worth the $3.19 I paid them. So, too, did I get my $20 worth from the Cook County Forest Preserve District. That's where I go when the old jeans begin to fit too tight.
But the two biggies on the bill, Elgin Area School District U-46 and the city of Elgin, left me scratching my head. Unless I'd missed something, neither had raised taxes. With my EAV down, why did both rates and both bills rise?
Good question, but nearly unanswerable, even by people who deal with such numbers as a matter of course. U-46 Chief Financial Officer John Prince confirmed that the school district's overall request was 13 cents less than last year and that if my EAV was stable or down, I was right to assume I should pay less.
Except, he said, for nearly indecipherable state attempts to equalize the differences between counties. He called himself "in over his head" when attempting to explain how the Illinois Department of Revenue determined "percent of burden," especially, he said, since it doesn't actually add up to 100 percent once it's set.
"This is one more example of how to make it incredibly obscure to citizens," he said.
Got the same sort of "well, it's like this…" response from Elgin Assistant City Manager Sean Stegall. First, he said, the listing on the tax bill of "City of Elgin Bond" was wrong. The city portion of the bill includes the city's long-stable $1.92 per $100 tax rate, bond obligations and pensions.
He agreed with Prince's assessment that with a stable or declining EAV and the city's rate unchanged, my bill shouldn't be going up. Except, he said, Elgin bills are based on Kane County equalized assessed valuation because 80 percent of the city lies in that county. With the Cook County portion's EAV growing at a lesser rate than Kane's, the burden for individual Cook residents was a bit higher.
"I don't know how Joe Smith can truly grasp it," Stegall said. "There's nothing user friendly about tax bills."
Not that I'm going to complain about property taxes in Cook County compared to Kane. Because Cook taxes businesses at a higher rate, it has lower personal property taxes, by quite a bit. But does it have to be this hard to determine if somebody somewhere is trying to undo that advantage or if my bill is actually correct?
And why am I paying for a suburban tuberculosis sanitarium (in Hinsdale, if you were wondering) that everyone says should be eliminated? No wonder. It spends $15,000 more per patient than the national average. And despite Google searching forever, I could find no evidence that the Community Mental Health District to which I paid $13 actually exists. I'm still looking and Stegall is searching, too.
But I'm also thinking we need a state constitutional amendment to eliminate all taxing bodies, followed by a check-off of those we would want to reinstate. If we did that, I'm pretty sure my bill would be a lot smaller. It's also possible it could actually be understandable.