In the FBI Agent’s statement that led to Chicago Alderman Ed Burke’s arrest for attempted extortion, Burke is quoted as desiring his law firm to represent the fast food restaurant moguls in Will, Lake and DuPage Counties, in that order. … Continue reading
Category Archives: McHenry County Supervisor of Assessments
Take a look at the following part of the Illinois Revenue Act concerning natural disasters: (35 ILCS 200/13-5) Sec. 13-5. Reassessment in disaster areas. In every county which has been declared a major disaster area by the President of the … Continue reading
Assessors use something called a “Coefficient of Dispersion” to measure the quality of assessments. It’s something like the margin of error used in political polls. The McHenry County Supervisor of Assessments has provided the following data from 2015. This is … Continue reading
An email from Grafton Township Assessor Al Zielinski: Appealing your 2014 taxes and your 2015 assessments Personally and via my presentations, I’ve explained and cautioned about the assessment games played at the county level. However, I never imagined to what … Continue reading
A press release from McHenry County: McHenry County introduces new, free “Online Property Inquiry” tool to County website The new, free “Online Property Inquiry” tool provides the public with an easy-to-use mechanism to access property parcel and tax information. This one-stop shop … Continue reading
Crain’s Chicago Business is reporting the sale of a home in Hartland Township for “almost $4.9 million.” Marked down from an original asking price of $7.5 million in 2012. This year’s property tax bill is $31,837.06. The Hartland Township Assessor set … Continue reading
Some readers are into statistical information about government. Here are the latest from the McHenry County Supervisor of Assessments: … Continue reading
It’s pretty obvious that newspapers are in trouble. Circulation is down. Display advertising is way down. But legal advertising still keeps the presses rolling. Now comes State Rep. Joe Sosnowski (representing an area I represented in the 1970’s–Boone, northern DeKalb and … Continue reading
Went to get a free Northwest Herald at Mr. A’s (corner of Dole Avenue and Route 14) and found two sections devoted to Grafton Township assessments. These are the first assessments by new assessor Al Zielinski. After today, people who … Continue reading
The Illinois real estate assessment system bases one’s share of the total bill on the value of one’s property (unless one has farm land). A short history of how we got where we are. The 1870 Constitution required that real … Continue reading
There are plenty of articles in the Northwest Herald about tax levies this time of year. Let me give a short course in how to report what’s going on. Headlines have read, “[X tax district] holds levy constant.” What does … Continue reading
Real estate assessment appeals decreased from 10,413 to 6,996 this year, according to figures form the Supervisor of Assessment Office. (There may be a few missing from Burton Township.) That’s almost a one-third drop. The number of appeals increased in … Continue reading
That’s what Supervisor of Assessments Robert Ross emailed me in September: “The Department of Revenue has indicated McHenry County assessments must go down approximately 9 percent in 2012.” Now comes my Algonquin Township assessment notice and guess what it says? … Continue reading
Under the heading of “Why your tax bills went up,” in Kevin Craver’s article on the issuance of Property Tax bills is a misstatement from the McHenry County Supervisor of Assessments. The Northwest Herald story says Robert Ross indicated, “The … Continue reading
The 2010 assessed valuation has been totaled for McHenry County and it’s down almost 10%. That’s what a comparison of raw figures from the McHenry County Supervisor of Assessments Office indicate. McHenry County real estate taxes this year will be … Continue reading
Sorry for the delay in pointing out that homeowners can appeal their assessments in McHenry Township. It looks like the deadline is the day before the election. The sparsely populated Dunham Township, on the south edge of Harvard, also has … Continue reading
Robert Ross, the Chief Deputy Supervisor of Assessments in Lake County, is scheduled to replace retiring McHenry County Supervisor of Assessments Donna Mayberry. Robert Ross the Chief Deputy Supervisor of Assessments in Lake County is scheduled to replace retiring McHenry … Continue reading
I happened across the following letter to the Crystal Lake Herald that was published February 9, 1977, prior to the Algonquin Township primary election that pitted appointed incumbent Ed Traub against Forrest Hare’s former top assistant Bob Kunz. I thought … Continue reading
I happened across the following letter to the Crystal Lake Herald that was published February 9, 1977, prior to the Algonquin Township primary election that pitted appointed incumbent Ed Traub against Forrest Hare’s former top assistant Bob Kunz. I thought … Continue reading
Every year there is a meeting of township assessors led by county supervisors of assessment. It’s a meeting where new laws are explained, information compiled by county assessment employees is distributed and questions are answered. As far as twelve township … Continue reading