From the Assessor

From the Spring, 2010, Wayne Township Newsletter

Michael E. Musson, C.I.A.O.
(630) 231-8900 Fax: (630) 231-9534
e-mail: assistance@waynetownshipassessor.com
Website: www.waynetownshipassessor.com

2009 Tax Bills
The 2009 tax bills, payable in 2010, will be mailed by the DuPage County Treasurer in late April. The bills are payable in two installments, on June 1st and September 1st.

This year, the Treasurer has also implemented a new program that allows homeowners who pay their own real estate taxes (as opposed to those whose taxes are paid with their mortgage payments) to prepay their taxes, and spread the payments out over several months. Payments may be made monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or on any other schedule. Participants can also have their payments automatically withdrawn from their bank accounts. The deadline to enroll in this program for the 2009 tax bill is April 30, 2010. More information, and application forms, are available on the internet at http://www.dupageco.org/treasurer, or by calling (630)407-5900.

2010 Assessments
As I have written in the past several newsletters, overall assessments in Wayne Township will finally begin to fall in 2010. As I have also written, state law requires that assessment changes each year are based on sales that occurred in the prior three years. The result that assessments change moderately, rather than suddenly when the market increases or decreases. Therefore, although the market has been declining for at least two years, assessments have been slow to react. Also, many of the sales that have occurred were due to foreclosures. State law does not allow us to consider these sales when determining assessments.

As I have explained in previous newsletters, across-the-board assessment reductions will not cause taxes to go down, because taxing bodies (schools, village, park/library/fire districts) almost always maintain or increase their levies each year. Tax rates increase as assessments decrease, ensuring that taxing bodies extract the same (or more) tax dollars. The taxing districts must reduce their spending in order for taxes to go down.

We expect to complete the 2010 assessments by August, 2010. The 2010 assessments will be reduced by an equalization factor from the Supervisor of Assessments. Individual property owners will not receive assessment notices, unless improvements have been made to their properties, Home Improvement Exemptions are expiring, or unless their neighborhoods require reassessment beyond the equalization factor. The equalization notice will be published in the Examiner Newspapers, and property-owners will have 30 days to file assessment appeals.

My staff is also available to discuss assessments with property owners throughout the year. If you receive solicitations from attorneys or agents offering to represent you in an assessment appeal, please call my office. It is typically not necessary for homeowners to pay for representation in appeal hearings.

As we get closer to completing the 2010 assessment process, we will post our estimated closing date on our website, as well as in the next Township newsletter.