Property Taxes Up 10 To 18 Percent, Owners Line Up With Questions

As the phone rang and people lined up at the Maine Township office in Park Ridge, Tom Rueckert characterized the reaction to property tax bills in just a few words.

"It's a disaster," said Rueckert, the Maine Township assessor. "There's so many people coming in."

People are stunned that, even though the total assessed values in Maine Township went down 9 percent and the state multiplier went down 2 percent, property tax bills went up 10, 15, 18 percent or higher, he explained.

"They're not happy," he said. "It's looks like it's virtually the entire township."

Earlier:

Of the towns in Maine Township, Glenview got hit the hardest, Niles got the smallest increase and Park Ridge and Des Plaines were in the middle, Rueckert said.

When property tax bills started arriving in mailboxes Monday, 86 property owners came in and his staff returned 60 phone calls. On Tuesday, 179 people lined up and staff returned 108 phone calls.

No way to lower bills...

There's very little he can do for them, since the process of appealing 2010 taxes has closed. The bills arriving in mailboxes this week are the second installment of 2010 taxes, which are billed and paid in 2011. Property owners will not be able to file appeals again until approximately February 2012, when they can appeal their 2011 taxes.

Unless county made an error

There's only one way to reduce the bills which arrived this week, and that's only if the government failed to grant homeowners the exemptions--such as homeowners, senior citizens, senior freeze or disabled veterans' exemptions-- due to them.

"We say to people, 'look at your tax bill and make sure you got your exemptions,'" Rueckert explained.

In those cases, property owners should contact Rueckert's office at (847) 297-2510, and he can file a certificate of error with Cook County. If this is done soon, the county can send an amended tax bill, which asks for a lower amount of money, within about 10 days. That's still enough time to pay the bill by its Nov. 1 due date.

For people in this situation, a quicker way to get the amended tax bill is to go in person to Cook County's Rolling Meadows or Skokie buildings. Though homeowners may wait two hours in line, they'll walk out with an amended tax bill.

If property owners with bills that don't reflect their exemptions wait more than a few days from now to contact the township assessor, though, then they should pay the full amount by Nov. 1, and the county can send them a refund check.

Most tax bills don't contain errors, so Rueckert's staff can only explain their bills to them and tell them they must be paid by Nov. 1.

"It's very, very difficult to explain this to somebody," Rueckert said. "There are so many factors that go into how the county computes this.

Even the assessor himself is not immune from irrational leaps in his bill.

"I'm looking at my own bill," he said. "How did Glenview Library District in my case go up 26 percent? And there's not been a referendum."