From the desk of:

GENE BERGHOFF

Executive Vice President

By Eugene Berghoff

The property tax laws and assessment practices in Illinois have been studied and reviewed many times over the last 25 years.

As a result of these studies, the Department of Local Government Affairs was created to centralize a number of state agencies to provide assistance to local government units in the fields of financial affairs, planning & housing, and community services.

A law was enacted that required each county to appoint a supervisor of assessments to review the assessments as made by the various township assessors in his particular county.

Property assessments are important to park districts, since at the present time, it is our main source of revenue and it also establishes the bonding limitation. Therefore, it is necessary that these local assessment officials carry out their duties in accordance with the laws of the State and to insure both the taxpayers and the local government units that all property is assessed at a uniform level to be equalized at 50% of full value.

Many local officials have complained that the Department of Local Government Affairs is not properly carrying out their duties and responsibilities in equalizing assessments at this level. As a result, a committee was established by the General Assembly to review our laws and procedures and to make recommendations to the 79th General Assembly. Senator Terrell Clarke, of Western Springs was chairman of the committee and has presented several recommendations to the legislature for its consideration at their 79th session.

This includes the removal of all authority and duties of the Department of Local Government in equalizing property assessments. Senator Clarke's committee has recommended that a State property tax commission be created with the members being appointed by the Governor with the approval of the Senate. Another major recommendation is that some type of county assessment agency be enacted into law to replace township assessors.

This would possibly be a county tax department which would be headed by the county supervisor of assessments and this office would assess all property and be charged with the duties of establishing a property record system to insure that all taxable property is being assessed.

A number of experts in the field of local government finance feel that the assessments level of 50% should be reduced to 40% since a number of counties are assessing at only 28% to 30% at the present time.

Once these bills are introduced, it will be essential that your association review them very carefully and determine the actual effect they will have on park district revenues and make recommendations to insure that park districts will receive the maximum revenues possible.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 23 March/April, 1975