Residents are by now familiar with real estate tax assessment appeals.
That’s an attack on the accuracy of one’s assessed value.
McHenry County Blog even has an advertiser, attorney Jim Bishop, who handles such appeals.
There is, however, a second approach to lowering ones property taxes.
It was in high vogue when I served as McHenry County Treasurer from 1960-1970.
Fully ten percent of property tax bills and dollars were paid under protest.
County government always lost.
I remember the first Finance Committee meeting considering the levy after I had been in office about a year.
The proposed budget, presented by County Auditor Harley Makeban, showed a zero balance at the beginning of the Fiscal Year, December 1, 1967.
I told the Committee that I though we would have at least $10 million in the bank on that date. (Turns out it was more than $10 million.)
The reason was that the County Board was deliberately hoarding money to build a new courthouse.
Last year for the first time in approximately 30 years, a tax objection levy complaint was filed in McHenry County. There are two ways to reduce your tax bill.
This occurs when a group of taxpayers claim that various tax levies issued by local governments are illegal, invalid or constitutionally excessive.
As a matter of course, tax rate levy complaints have been filed every year in all of the collar counties, with the exception of McHenry County.
Last year, the Dwyer Law Office in St. Charles filed a tax rate levy complaint against three McHenry County governments: the City of Crystal Lake, School District 47 and School District 155.
(The information below came from attorney Tim Dwyer.)
A judgment of $1.6 million was taken against the City of Crystal Lake, which the city has appealed.
The complaints against the School Districts are pending.
Valley Hi’s money in the bank has skyrocketed to over $41 million.
This year, a tax rate levy complaint will be filed against six or seven units of local government.
For example, one portion of the 2014 complaint will attack the County’s levy for the Valley Hi Nursing Home as excessive and illegal.
One of the most egregious levy claims will be made against Harrison School District 36, which serves the eastern portion of Wonder Lake with Harrison Elementary School.
By all objective accounts, the Harrison School is a fine institution, and has generally received a good “report card” from the Illinois State Board of Education (“ISBE”).
However, the District has been overtaxing its residents for the last three years.
Specifically, District 36 has a Transportation Fund, for which it levies in order to provide access to and for the School.
Over the last five years, the cost of transporting the children to Harrison School has been steady at between $350,000-370,000. And up until 2011, the levy for District 36 was in that neighborhood.
However, in 2012, District 36 levied $800,000 for its Transportation Fund.
In 2013, District 36 adopted a levy of $1,445,000 for its Transportation Fund.
These three men ran on a taxpayers’ slate for Wonder Lake’s Harrison School Board. Bob Anderson was elected.
In 2014, District 36 imposed a $1,800,000 levy for transportation costs of $377,000.
Because of the excessive 2012-2013 levies, the District had a $1,200,000 Fund balance for Transportation at the end of fiscal year 2013-14.
Despite having a fund balance of 1.2 million for its Transportation Fund, District 36 adopted a 2014 levy of $1,800,000, making the funds available to pay for its transportation needs ($370,000 on average) over 3 million dollars.
This severely overtaxes the affected residents, and is illegal, St.Charles attorney Tim Dwyer says.
The District has nearly ten times the amount necessary on hand to pay for its transportation costs.
As a result, the tax rate in District 36 is anywhere between 13.6% to 14.9%. When tax rates are
that excessive, taxpayers have severe difficulty in selling their homes.
Similar homes in different townships or neighborhoods have an average tax rate of 11.6%, which is still very high relative of other counties.
In fact, the Transportation Fund tax in District 36 is so high that as of the end of fiscal year 2013-14 (July 1, 2014), District 36 has enough money on hand, according to ISBE, to maintain all of its Funds for 562 days (See attachment).
Without any levy for 2014, District 36 had enough cash on hand to pay all of its expenses for over 1 ½ years.
Nevertheless, in December of 2014, District 36 adopted a Transportation Fund levy of 1.8 million.
If you are reading this, and you live in the area affected by the illegal tax, contact Tim Dwyer at 630-513-0066 or email the Dwyer Law Office at tim@tpd-law.com.
If you in an area subject to the taxes imposed by District 36, you are eligible for a rebate of at least 20%, and perhaps as much as 40% of your tax bill.
Woodstock D200 is deliberately overtaxing in its transportation fund .
This is because property values have dropped so much that the ed fund tax rate is maxed out (4%) and so is the special ed fund (.8%) and ops&maintenance fund.
So the school board knowingly taxes too much in transportation fund (no max rate cap.)
Then the board can later vote to make a permanent transfer of excess funds from transportation fund to ed fund.
The “Tax Sched 24” tab in public school district annual financial reports lists the taxes received for each fund.
The annual financial reports (AFR) are posted and archived on the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) website.
ftp://ftpfinance.isbe.net/AFR
http://www.isbe.net > Division & Program Areas > School Business Services > Historical > Annual Financial Reports (1996–2014)
You will need the Region County District Type (RCDT) code for the school district.
Here are the RCDT Codes for McHenry County School Districts.
Nippersink SD 2: 44-063-0020-03 (Richmond, Spring Grove)
Fox River Grove Cons SD 3: 44-063-0030-03
Johnsburg CUSD 12: 44-063-0120-26
McHenry CCSD: 44-063-0150-04 (Elementary District)
Riley CCSD 18: 44-063-0180-04 (one of the Marengo Elementary districts)
Alden Hebron SD 19: 44-063-0190-24
Cary CCSD 26: 44-063-0260-04
Harrison SD 36: 44-063-0360-02 (Wonder Lake Elementary district)
Prairie Grove CSD 46: 44-063-0460-03
Crystal Lake CCSD 47: 44-063-0470-04 (Elementary district)
Harvard CUSD 50: 44-063-0500-26
Marengo CHSD 154: 44-063-1540-16 (high school district)
CHSD 155: 44-063-1550-16 (Crystal Lake, Cary, & Fox River Grove high school district)
McHenry CHSD 156: 44-063-1560-16 (High School District)
Richmond-Burton CHSD 157: 44-063-1570-16
Cons SD 158: 44-063-1580-22 (Marengo High School District)
Marengo-Union E Cons D 165: 44-063-1650-03
Woodstock CUSD 200: 44-063-2000-26
There are MORE than two ways to fight your tax bill Cal!
And please stop referring to them as “real estate tax assessment appeals”, they are Assessment appeals.
They only fight the assessed value of your home, NOT your taxes.
Ones taxes may STILL GO UP after a lowering of assessed value, just depends on the Tax Rate.
Want to REALLY fight your property taxes?
STOP the school boards from voting for budget increases year after year after year!
These increase your Tax Rate, the magic number nobody talks about!
Why bash the school districts?
Because 70% of a Property Tax Bill goes to the schools.
Schools that have built illegal bleachers with those tax dollars, schools that have put Astro-Turf football fields in with those tax dollars!
We can start by taking the money away from school districts and giving it to the students and their families to determine where the kid will go to school.
Here’s what’s going on in Nevada, which Illinois should take a hard look at:
http://www.edchoice.org/school-choice/programs/nevada-education-savings-accounts/
Thank you Cal, Susan, Mark On, Bambuzled and Steve!
Not only are all your points well taken… we need others who have the courage to start digging into…
why these schools keep growing; yet kids are graduating without measuring up to academic standards.
It is astounding that colleges find it necessary to teach remedial reading, math, science etc. to these kids so they can proceed at the college level.
Employers need to teach them how to make change (been there, had to do it myself)!
A simplistic approach would be to drop all the “PC junk” school boards deem necessary!
All that is being accomplished is to… “make more government jobs” and beg for more money.
There is only ONE sure and effective way to attack the regressive real estate tax in Illinois.
Do as countless thousands have already done and leave Illinois ASAP,
or continue to be a victim of LEAGALISED EXTORSION until
you and your families have been driven into the poorhouse.
Rebuttal to School Board comments in Woodstock Independent article Sept.30 2015 by Stephanie Price
1. “…the school board is obligated to keep the district financially afloat.”
We can stay afloat on a raft, Or a sturdier seagoing craft,
Or Admin can sunbathe on the fore of a yacht , While we all scrub poop(deck) in the aft.
The implication that the district would be imperiled if budget were cut has no logical basis. Woodstock spends too much per pupil relative to other districts to make such a claim.
*Operating Expense Per Pupil (OEPP) 2014:
Huntley D158 spends $8844 per pupil on 8806 pupils.
D200 spends $12548 per pupil on 6120 pupils.
(OEPP State average is $10,177)
2. “We don’t get the state money like other school districts get, so it’s not entirely fair to compare us to them.”
We are comparing spending, not revenues, so it is completely fair and necessary to compare spending choices made by this board to schools across America. Why isn’t the school board looking at how schools all over America are managing to spend far less per pupil than D200 to achieve similar test and college readiness results?
But let’s compare revenues from State and Federal sources:
*Revenues Received 2014 (State and Federal Grants and Receipts) 2014:
Huntley 158 got $21006641 from State sources, $2890998 from Federal. Total: $23,897,639
Woodstock D200 got $16307240from State sources, $ 4641010from Federal. Total: $20,948,250
As we all know, State and Federal Aid is a function of student enrollment.
Huntley 158 had 8806 avg. daily enrollment (ADA), Woodstock D200 6120.
Huntley 158 State and Federal Aid on a per pupil basis: $23897639/8806=$2714
Woodstock D200 State and Federal Aid on a per pupil basis: $20948250/6120=$3423
This means Woodstock D200 gets $709 MORE PER PUPIL than Huntley 158!
State funding alone:
Huntley $21006641/8806=$2385.
Woodstock $16307240/6120=$2665
So yes, “We don’t get the State money like other school districts get”… WE GET MORE.
3. “Many of the comments tonight are really more appropriately directed to the upcoming tax levy meeting in November.”
When are citizens able to point out that spending choices within the budget to be voted upon are ruinous?
D200 gets more government aid per pupil, and spends more overall per pupil per year. Property tax rates are 5% of home value.
Once the board votes on a budget incorporating all those raises and new hiring and frivolous spending which requires a levy that is ruinous to citizens, isn’t it too late?
*ftp://ftpfinance.isbe.net/AFR/2014/School%20Districts/ School Annual Financial Reports Archives at Illinois State Board of Education website. 2014 latest available data.
Huntley 158 code is 44-063-1580-22 Woodstock D200 code is 44-063-2000-26
If only it were that simple!
Right now the District 156 Board is fighting both sides in the issue!
The teachers are on strike for higher salaries and the taxpayer parents want the schools operating.
The Board will have no choice other than negotiate and then pay higher salaries than they think are appropriate thus succumbing to the demands of the teachers union OR shutting down the schools for an indefinite period of time.
Parents will not like that option.
Good luck.
Frankly, I could not care less whether or not the “parents” would be unconvinced by a shutdown of the school!
“Taxpayers” simply cannot afford the luxuries these unions have become accustom to.
Especially when we get worse than below standard outcomes from those demanding more money.
Take away the ability of teachers to strike or we will all be typing the same stuff for another decade.
Reasonable school board members can’t negotiate without some power.
Collective bargaining state law needs to change so taxpayers get to vote on each collective bargaining agreement.
If the employees get to vote, the taxpayers should get to vote.
Right now it’s a double standard.
Union members vote on the employment contract, but taxpayers are not allowed to vote on the employment contract.
Not fair.
Collective bargaining law is unfair to taxpayers.
Not a level playing field.
And regarding taxpayers vote for school board members who vote on the employment contract, well, union members vote on school board members and union leaders, so union members get a double vote, they get to vote on both sides of the negotiating table then get to vote on the contract then get to vote if they want to strike and they union receives mandatory dues as a condition of employment and the government monopoly receives money from taxpayers irregardless if taxpayers are satisfied with the service or not…no choice.
It’s an incredibly unfair system.
A tax rate complaint will afford an average homeowner only pennies on the dollar tax refunds as you are almost always referring to a tiny percentage of the tax rate for an individual taxing body.
All homeowners should carefully review the assessor’s opinion of the fair market value of the real property and make a determination if the facts will support a reduction in fair market value.
A $30,000 reduction in the fair market value of the property will result in a reduction of the assessed value by $10,000 and an annual tax savings of more than $1000.
Since this is a Quadrennial reassessment year, the total savings over the 4 year period will be in excess of $4000.
All taxpayers MUST file the assessment complaint within 30 days of receiving the “Notice of Revised Assessment”.
A teacher strike is excellent opportunity for an evidence based study.
and it is FREE.
Students should spend minimum one hour a day doing math problem modules online at Khanacademy.org
It’s engaging, fun, FREE.
Modules are only maybe 10 minutes each.
FREE!
When these students test math later, see if there is significant difference in test scores compared to non strike classrooms.
And it is FREE!
As mentioned above, District 156 is on strike, and today is the first day of the strike.
Today the McHenry High School District 156 teacher union went on strike.
The teacher union wants more taxpayer money than what the school board has proposed.
What exactly the last proposal was, and all the details, we don’t know, because state law does not mandate the board to provide the public with updated proposals on a daily or weekly basis during contract negotiations.l
You can rest assured if the public received updates during contract negotiations, the collective bargaining agreements would more equitably represent taxpayers, students, and parents.
In most locals, the union updates their membership more frequently during contract negotiations than the board updates parents, taxpayers, and students.
And as has been discussed, the teachers are allowed to vote whether or not to accept a collective bargaining agreement, but the board does not allow parents, taxpayers, and citizens to vote.
The board should say we represent taxpayers, voters, citizens, and parents, and any new collective bargaining agreement is subject to voter ratification, just as it is subject to union membership ratification.
The local teacher union affiliate in McHenry High School District 156 is the McHenry High School Teachers’ Association (MHSTA), IEA-NEA.
IEA = Illinois Education Association, the statewide affiliate.
NEA = National Education Association, that national parent organization.
The regional affiliate is IEA Region 23 located in Elgin.
The IEA has a sophisticated contract database will all teacher contracts from all school districts in Illinois, which blows the doors off anything the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) and others in the so called school management alliance have to offer.
Others in the school management alliance are the:
– Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA).
– Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO).
– Illinois Principals Association (IPA).
Why are the teachers choosing to strike now, in the fall?
Fall is the most common time for teacher unions to strike.
The biggest turnout for a high school athletic event is football, football is a fall sport, and the largest high school sport teams are football teams, many people look forward to fall high school football games, so the biggest union strike impact comes in the fall.
Since state law apparently forbids high school athletics during teacher strikes, teacher strike forces a forfeit, which can affect IHSA playoffs and scholarships / financial aid packages.
But at the conclusion of the strike teachers typically or always get back pay plus any raise is typically or always retroactive to the expiration of the agreement.
Teachers typically or always lose not one penny during a strike.
Teachers typically or always lose not one penny when their contract expires.
So when you hear in the news that the teachers are working without a contract, that does not affect teacher compensation.
Parents can certainly print out all the individual teacher pay hikes in District 156 from 2002 – current from public databases.
Parents can certainly submit a FOIA request for all teacher collective bargaining agreements including all addendums, amendments, letters of agreement, side letters, and any other modifications to the agreements (collective bargaining agreements are frequently modified during the term of their agreement and such modifications are typically not provided to the public or a FOIA requester unless they are specifically requested in another catch me if you can game).
How about all the benefits.
School districts hardly ever line items each benefit for each employee, instead stuffing several benefits in the “other benefits” category on the administrator and teacher salary and benefit report.
The administration is typically not overly concerned about teacher pay hikes, because administrators are generally paid more than teachers, so a hike for the teachers is a hike at some future point for the administrators.
The most lucrative aspect of teacher compensation though is the pension.
The TRS pension is a Rolls Royce pension.
Very few pensions anywhere are better than a TRS pension.
That’s why teachers rarely move out of state, because the Illinois teacher pension is more lucrative than Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, or just about anywhere, maybe everywhere, when all the pension perks are tallied up.
No one is putting a gun to the heads of teachers and forcing them to strike.
They could continue teaching as they negotiate the contract.
But they choose not to do so.
The teachers choose to inflict pain in parents to obtain their desired objective of more money from parents who have no choice but to send their taxpayer dollars to the monopoly school district irregardless if they are happy with the education their child receives.
By the way regarding the teacher pension, if the employee started January 1, 2011 or after, the teacher is in the less lucrative Tier II TRS pension system.
Bishop, huh? Yeah, right!
In Zimbabwe during hyperinflation, teachers often couldn’t afford cost of public transportation to get to work.
The children would get together, the class leader would take over teaching the class, and determine Iassignments so they could all keep current.
Students who teach reinforce their own knowledge. That was true for study groups also. Children spent the whole day working on learning even if the teacher was absent.
So I say again, there are several FREE online tutoring/teaching/ learning websites which offer interesting formats for their lessons.
And they are FREE.
If students took the effort to participate in online learning, Such as with Khanacademy.org. , teachers could stay on strike until cows come home, but students would learn anyway.
The Rolls Royce TRS Teacher & Administrator Pension is only about 40% funded and McHenry high school teachers are on strike because why?
What is the plan to get their pension fully funded.
How can taxpayers fully fund the teacher pensions, all the other pensions, and teachers going on strike.
Impossible.
But because the bill is not all due right now, hey, go on strike and get what you can now and worry about funding the pensions some other time because that’s a state responsibility, completely ignoring the same taxpayers fund the state contribution to the TRS pension fund, but nothing in Illinois collective bargaining law says that has to be a consideration, which is absurd.
Unsustainable.
Out of control.
How about if the teachers and press and school board explain to the taxpayer how lucrative the teacher pension system really is.
Retire at age 55 with 35 years work and receive a starting $75,000 pension with 3% annual cost of living allowance.
on average.
And that may be low.
For teachers retiring now.
Notice the teachers are not comparing themselves to taxpayers, just other teachers, and only teachers in Illinois.
GREED.
Susan
I agree we could have more online learning for a lot of students but special needs and low income children who come to first grade with no home taught skills might need more contact with a person. We should adopt a countywide allowance per pupil for education and tell teacher applicants that each district in McHenry County has to abide by that amount.
Here is an illustration why administrators are often not very good negotiators of teacher union contracts, as hiking teacher pay eventually results in hiking administrator pay since administrators typically earn more than teachers, and hiking pay results in hiked pensions.
The following are the top McHenry High School District 156 pensions, from Taxpayers United of America.
Mores specifically the data is from the TUA document McHenry County Government School Retirees, Top 100 Pensions as of 2015.
Name – Pension – Life Member Contrib – Retire Age – Ttl to Date – Est Life Payout – eee contrib % of Est Life Payout
Michael R Kelly – $141,916 – $25,364 – 60 – $1,472,585 – $3,486,659 – 0.7%
Teresa A Lane – $129,894 – $183,460 – 55 – $405,746 – $5,413,573 – 3.4%
Norbert F Wolter – $129,483 – $163,698 – 56 – $1,234,877 – $4,052,633 – 4.0%
Gregory O Johnson – $126,225 – $42,116 – 55 – $1,275,082 – $4,021,946 – 1.0%
Gina R Swinney – $111,822 – $198,099 – 55 – $177,673 – $4,978,305 – 4.0%
Thomas J Carl – $109,334 – $143,063 – 56 – $1,042,721 – $3,422,011 – 4.2%
Notes:
Michael R Kelly was the Business Manager that retired in 2002.
Teresa Lane was the Superintendent that retired in 2012.
Norbert Wolter was an Assistant Superintendent that retired in 2003.
Gregory O Johnson was the McHenry West HS Principal that retired in 2002.
Gina R Swinney was an Assistant District Superintendent that retired in 2013.
Thomas J Carl was a high school principal that retired in 2003.
The comment on special needs children is noteworthy in that it supports the need for more reasonable pensions.
A retired person earning a lucrative pension is contributing nothing to educating special needs children.
Low income is not a need.
There are plenty of low income children that are smarter than high income children.
What about the medium or high income parents who are told the entire time their child is in the public education system that their child is doing “just fine” and when is the first red flag, in 8th grade or high school with the ACT Explore or whatever when the student tests lower than average, oh they are still doing fine, they are average, then in college they need remedial level classes the parent or student has to pay for yet the student receives no college credit.
Maybe the administrators and teachers can work on that problem while the teachers are on strike.
How much is the average teacher’s pension inD156?
Maybe we need to put a cap on the salaries especially for principals and administrators.
Also maybe we need to let them contribute to social security.
I know construction union workers don’t get that big of a pension.
Let’s give the teachers smaller pensions but let them contribute to social security as another means of retirement.
People who comment here or read the comments and live in a school district which is on strike or plans to go on strike, need to quit typing / reading, pick up a marker, obtain a blank piece of poster board, make a sign and start protesting.
Our society is being ruled by the people who know “Rules for Radicals”.
There are only two ways to defeat them:
Our society currently will not support a violent revolution.
Get that marker and start walking!
BTW the guy in the White House and Hilary Clinton are both well versed in the Rules for Radicals written by Saul Alinsky.
I hold the opinion that the Administration in D.C. and others are actively pursuing the following rule in the hope that American Patriots will become violent to support the implementation of martial law:
“* RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”
Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management’s wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)”
Jim Bishop wrote that ” on average, tax rate complaints will save taxpayers pennies on the dollar” in response to the article regarding School District 36. Last year, citizens of Crystal Lake obtained a tax rebate of 14%, and 56% of their tax bills are still bring contested. That is a challenge of 70%. These rebates are significant.
If an individual or business resides in eastern Wonder Lake, and is subject to the illegal taxes levied by District 36, the most effective method of protest is to get your Homeowners Association to join the suit. We did this last year in Crystal Lake, and the tax refunds are substantial, not “pennies on the dollar”.
In any case, Mr. Bishop is correct when he advises all homeowners to review their notice of assessment. The fact of the matter remains that McHenry County governments are hoarding money because nobody has challenged the TAX RATES for over 30 years. If you want to educate yourself on this issue, look at the annual audits of those entities on your tax bill. The largest tax collector remains the school districts. District 47 Has Been CARRYING Cash Of 85 Million for years, and presently has over 50 million invested in CDS which will not mature for several fiscal years. District 155 has over 115 million in “cash and investments”. This is outrageous, and citizens should be asking hard questions to these governmental sponges.
The average public school teacher retiring in 2015 in the Chicago suburbs that has worked a 35 year career is receiving roughly a $75,000 starting pension, and from what I’ve seen McHenry is no different.
Tier II (Tier 2) TRS pensions have a salary cap.
https://trs.illinois.gov/pubs/EZguide.pdf
The cap was $109,971.43 in the above link.
A salary cap results in a cap on starting pensions.
Starting pension for full benefits is 75% of the average of the last 4 years worked.
$109,971.43 salary cap x .75 = $82,478.57 starting pension cap.
Tier II minimum retirement age for full benefits is 67.
That would be a 45 year career for someone starting at age 22 (currently full benefits can be obtained after 35 years of service which is often less than 35 years worked).
Employees in Tier II began their career in January 2011 or after, so they will not be retiring with full benefits until year 2056 or so.
There may be some current or future loopholes such as the infamous Early Retirement Option (ERO) which would allow Tier II to retire earlier with full benefits.
It is next to impossible for the average citizen to keep up with the the nuances and changes in the 19 pension funds in the Illinois Pension Code.
+++++++
It would be very difficult politically to add teachers to Social Security.
Beyond that, it would be a big additional cost to local school districts for the 6.2% employer contribution.
+++++++++++++
The private sector building trade pension funds are not nearly as generous a pensions as the public sector pensions in Illinois.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Probably the best option is to educate yourself on pensions and advocate to change to your friends and State Reps and Senators and the Governor.
And somehow get organized to get a majority in the Illinois General Assembly (House and Senate).
That will be very difficult.
It seems more likely a fire or police fund would run out of money or a municipality would run out of money, and then the General Assembly would figure out what to do.
Or if too many people move, the General Assembly would somehow react.
It seems as if they are waiting for some event to force their hand.
It is a big problem and big mess and it is dysfunctional.