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What They Say . . .

THE ASSESSMENT PROBLEM*

The Illinois Department of Revenue, with its new county assessment multipliers, has started the bitterest tax fight throughout the state since the resistance to the sales tax in the nineteen-thirties.

* Peoria Journal Star, Dec. 8, 1957.

(Continued on page 41)

Page 27 / Illinois Municipal Review / February 1958


THE ASSESSMENT PROBLEM

(Continued from page 27)

Charges and countercharges, and objections and denials are flying in all directions. County and township officials, chambers of commerce, and individual taxpayers are exhibiting pained surprise over the Revenue Department's action. But the truth is that they ought to be surprised that some action wasn't taken long ago.

In none of the 78 counties where assessment multipliers have been raised would there be any problem if local officials had done what they have left undone for decades; namely, straightened out the deplorable inequities of assessments.

It would take a large-sized book to discuss these problems and try to trace them to their sources. But mostly they add up to one thing-, which is that assessments are not uniform. That is a way of saying that taxpayers in some counties and townships pay less than their share of the costs of government while those in other localities pay more.

For 30 years, the laws of the state of Illinois have required full value of taxable property as the basis of assessing. But property was never assessed at full value. Even in 1946, when the equalization program was started, the average of assessments for the state was only about 75 per cent of full value. The percentage has dropped annually ever since and at present is estimated at less than 50 per cent.

This situation would create no hardship if assessing procedures were uniform throughout the state. But we find that property is assessed as low as 6 and 7 per cent in some communities and as high as 55 per cent in others.

There are numerous reasons for the chaos in assessments. Some assessors do not understand their jobs. Few of them have the help they need to do the job right. Many are re-elected, time after time, because they keep assessments low. And the whole system is so deeply rooted in tradition that few public officials want to face the task of modernizing it.

We have a good example of the inequities of the system here in Peoria. Because Peoria County property outside the city is assessed an average 31 per cent of full value, while property in the city is assessed at 55 per cent, city taxpayers pay some $385,000 more than their fair share of the cost of seven local governments (sanitary district, school district, and so on) that extend beyond the city limits.

One thing is certain. If our assessing were uniform throughout Peoria County, we wouldn't be having state multiplier trouble now.

Our job obviously is to get our local assessments in order. We would do well to quit shaking our fists at Springfield and get the job done.

Page 41 / Illinois Municipal Review / February 1958


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