Death looking better than taxes for DuPage Co. Homeowners

By Jake Griffin, Daily Herald Staff Writer
May 18, 2009


DuPage County homeowners have their property tax bills, with a first installment due in two weeks, and are on the hook for the lion's share of the more than $100 million extra local governments are collecting this year.

The more than 370 taxing bodies in DuPage will collect $2.33 billion in property taxes this year, up nearly $102 million - about 5 percent - from last year, despite a slumping housing market and an overall lagging economy.

While many government officials say they are cutting costs to ease the burden on property owners, taxpayers complain they're not doing enough.

"Why can't they cut 1 percent to 5 percent of their staff?" asked Alexander Lee of Carol Stream. "That's the rub. They don't like to lay off their own people. It's easier to take from us because we're faceless. Short of some Constitutional limitation on the size of certain agencies, nothing's ever going to change."

Residential properties make up more than three-quarters of the county's overall assessments, according to figures released by county clerk Gary King's office.

Most taxing bodies have to abide by the state-imposed tax cap, which limits governments to collecting no more than 5 percent more or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. An exception is municipalities with home-rule authority.

"If you live in a home-rule municipality, you're paying a little more," King said. "And all that money is going to the municipality, not the county."

Home-rule communities such as Naperville, Glendale Heights and Wheaton increased property taxes more than the 4.1 percent allowed by the tax cap this year. Only Carol Stream is taking in less property tax revenue this year than last, according to King's report. Meanwhile, Naperville's property tax haul from its DuPage County residents is up almost 11 percent from last year.

"For an entity such as ourselves that has seen significant reductions in other revenue sources, you'll see an increase in property taxes," said Naperville City Manager Doug Krieger. "But I'd challenge any taxing jurisdiction on our residents' tax bill to come up with the amount of cuts in either personnel or total expenditures compared to the city."

Krieger said the city laid off 20 people and cut another 23 already vacant jobs to help close a $3.5 million budget shortfall this year.

According to King's figures, municipalities like Naperville only make up 10 percent of the county's property tax requests. The county's 51 school districts remain the county's biggest property tax hog, taking in nearly 73 percent of all property taxes. The county, forest preserve, parks, townships, library, fire and other ancillary districts account for the remaining property tax takers.

Property taxes are based on assessments made by calculating a weighted 3-year average of a property's value. However, the three years assessors relied on for 2009 tax bills are 2005, 2006 and 2007.

"Those were still some pretty decent years for real estate," King said. "Next year they'll use 2008, which will show a decrease in property values."

In fact, King is already warning taxing bodies without home-rule powers that next year's tax cap will be set at a .1 percent increase.

"That means whatever money they're getting this year they'll get the same next year," he said. "So it should make their budgets very easy."

Decreased property values don't translate to lower property taxes, though. Taxing bodies can simply increase the property tax rate to make up for any dip in revenue lost by declining value.

"That's what people don't understand," said Milton Township Assessor Bob Earl. "Taxing bodies get money based on their levy, they don't get more money because assessments go up."

That's what has Lee - a postal worker who's making $10,000 less than last year - the most concerned.

"I've concluded I will have to leave the county as soon as my son is out of high school," he said. "I can't afford it anymore."