Overhaul for Cook County's property tax system?
Posted 3/7/2008 by Patrick RollensIn New Homes Magazine's March issue, columnist Don DeBat takes a look at the "antiquated" property tax system in Cook County. A solution might be found in a process called "acquisition-based assessing," which is championed by groups like the Tax Reform Action Coalition.
Acquisition-based assessing puts a limit on assessments increases until a property is sold. While you own your property, your assessment cannot go up more than 2 percent a year. So homeowners will never be slapped with assessment increases of 30 percent to 120 percent while they own the property.
TRAC predicts that if an acquisition-based assessing system is adopted, an established homeowner’s assessment will stabilize because it is not tied to the price a neighbor receives when he or she sells their property.
Comments
3/7/08
Carter said:
If it's ever going to happen, now is the time.
The current housing slump perfectly illustrates the lack of logic with the assessment system - people got assessed in many neighborhoods based on a hot market, and selling prices which no longer can be found.
Paying taxes on unrealized profit (or "future profits") is just preposterous.
The other benefit is that moving to such a system would require the county to actually appraise property properly. This is something the review board I'm sure will fight to their dying breath, given their well-known connections to the legal industry whose bread and butter is getting assessments lowered.
jeff said:
great points. The legal powers would crap if they changed this.
That is what always amazes me about Daley & all politicians in general, who claim they will not raise taxes and the grandstand about the budget shortfall issues, especially when they already have a built in property tax revenue escalator & (sales tax for that matter) that gives them more money than they know what to do with. It's called %- the more expensive things get, the more money these idiots take in.
Urban Chicago said:
Name one state that has implemented this successfully. Really, I am curious. This has been a disaster in California and Florida.
Unless I'm completely missing something…