Story posted Wednesday, October 21, 2009
New County Tax Rates Released
Newly-computed tax rates throughout Cook County were released yesterday (Tuesday) showing across the board reductions.
However, before property owners get their hopes up too high, there are other important factors that go into determining what residents will pay. For the most part in the Northwest suburban area, tax bills due by Dec. 1 will increase 1 to 3% depending on location.
Tax rates are determined after each individual taxing district, such as schools, cities and park districts---establish levies, which are amounts of money set by each jurisdiction to fund their operations. That, coupled with the equalization factor---commonly known as the multiplier---are the two most important items that determine homeowners tax bills. Also entering the mix is an array of tax exemptions residents can take advantage of such as the Homeowners Exemption.
This year, the multiplier jumped 4.74% to 2.9876. A multiplier is used only in Cook County to help equalize property values. The multiplier along with the various levies will likely result in a slight tax bill increase for average local homeowners.
According to figures released by the Cook County Clerk's office Tuesday, the total tax rate for Rosemont property owners living in Rosemont Elementary School Dist. 78 is 5.861 for 2008 and 5.955 for 2007 or a decrease of 1.58%. There are similar rate decreases for other separate public bodies such as Cook County, Maine Township, Village of Rosemont, Maine Township High School Dist. 207, and Leyden Township. Leyden High School Dist. 212 and the Rosemont Park Dist. experienced small tax rate hikes.
Even with the likelihood that residents will be paying a slight overall increase in their next tax bill, higher tax bills loom in 2010. Despite the recent 2009 reassessment of property that shows reductions in property value, homeowners may have to pay more when the second installment of bills are due in the fall.
"Depending on what the state of Illinois does with the multiplier (along with individual levies) will determine what people pay in 2010," said Maine Township Assessor Tom Rueckert. He explained that the next multiplier wouldn't be determined until summer. The multiplier coupled with the individual levies will then be used to determine the new rates. Rueckert said if the multiplier increases---as it almost always does---homeowners may have to pay higher tax bills again even thought assessments have gone down. He added that people probably wouldn't be informed what those new tax bills will total until after the fall election.
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