Commenter Lays Out What Township Abolition Bill Should Include

Thought I’d share with you what an anonymous commenter thinks should be in a township abolition by referendum bill:

(1) The County and/or municipalities must be given express authority to levy taxes for services previously provided by the township;

(2) The county needs to be empowered to distribute interim public assistance for residents of the former township, either by the Chairman or his/her designee, and given levy authority for that purpose;

(3) Motor Fuel Taxes need to continue to be available to the county and municipalities for former township roads;

(4) The dissolution of the township must not take effect until the next scheduled township elections, as is the case with SB003 as it pertains to the Road District being subsumed within the township by referendum.

(5) The referendum has to be on a general election date (greater public participation).

(6) The referendum signature requirement must be 8% of the voters in the previous election for governor (required by statute already).

(7) There should be no percentage reduction for the new levy because the outgoing township could set their levy to zero so 90% of zero is still zero.

(8) There needs to continue to be a two level appeal for assessments and the County Assessor needs to be empowered to take over the assessments.


Comments

Commenter Lays Out What Township Abolition Bill Should Include — 9 Comments

  1. Another major consideration is if the county is doing your assessments, to whom would taxpayers appeal?

    At least now there’s a bright line of distinction between the township and the Chief County Assessment Officer/Board of Review.

  2. I agree with Mr Zielinski, in that currently the board of review exists and subsists under the authority of the chief county assessment officer.

    He/she is the clerk of the board of review, they operate within a budget that he/she presents to the county board.

    I can tell you from firsthand experience, the chief county assessment officer is the CEO of the board of review under the existing format.

  3. When did the State of Illinois get the authority to confiscate real estate and equipment purchased by the Township residents and then redistribute it to the County?

    Even if you used eminent domain to condemn it, they would have to pay market price for it.

  4. I don’t know whether this answers the question, but both counties and townships are creatures of the state.

  5. But aren’t County Board of Review members appointed by the County Board?

    I don’t think they have to be “run” by the Supervisor of Assessments.

  6. In theory they should be an autonomous entity equally weighing the merits of the three entities who appear before them: taxpayers, township assessors and the CCAO.

    Regrettably in McHenry County, Mr. Kunz is correct.

    The CCAO makes numerous corrections to the annual assessments.

    In Grafton, annual reductions in the Equalized Assessed Value (EAV) have been as much as $50M which artificially increases the tax rate for everyone.

    It should be noted the reduction made by the CCAO occur without any public notice or the need for an appeal.

    Later in the process, the Board of Review plays two roles.

    1. Rubber-stamping those changes made the CCAO.

    2. Granting sometimes questionable reductions to appellant’s which artificially shifts the tax burden to those who don’t appeal.

    In more than four years, I’ve never seen an assessment increased at the the CCAO, Board of Review or even PTAB level regardless of the weight of the evidence to do so.

  7. If you’re a taxpayer, you get screwed over.

    If you’re an illegal alien or township honcho, you get pampered on the taxpayers’ dimes w/o their consent.

  8. The full-time chief county assessment officer is appointed by the county board, as is the part-time board of review.

    The two entities operate under the same umbrella, Assessments. The budget for both is under the authority of the chief county assessment officer, as the board of review does not submit its own budget.

    Further, the board of review has no staff under its management or authority, only assignees from the staff of the chief county assessment officer.

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