This summarizes McHenry County tax bills this year:

McHenry County Treasurer Glenda Miller mailed property tax bills on Friday.

They reached our mailbox Monday.

McHenry County Blog will present some analysis, the first portion of which compares what categories of tax districts have asked from out checking accounts over the last two years.

The source for these figures can be found as follows on the County Clerk’s web site:

• 2015 property tax extensions, that is, the amount billed
• 2016 property tax extensions
• 2017 property tax extensions

You will note that three types of governments are asking for less money this year that last year:

• County government
• Townships
• Park Districts

And the total tax tax is up 4/10 of one percent.

Last year total taxes went up 7/10 of one percent.

If there became a trend line, it would be good, but not enough to lower tax burdens.

Under the Property Tax Cap, tax districts could get up to 2.1% more this year.

The increase in the Consumer Price Index is the same for next year’s taxes.

What is needed, obviously, is for tax districts to cut the amount they demand from property owners.

Some did, as you will see in coming days.

Townships show consistent improvement, but my guess is that is because they had accumulated surpluses that could not be justified.  Algonquin Township’s Road Commissioner Andrew Gasser, for instance, cut back his Road District by a hard 5%…meaning that it cannot be reimposed without a referendum.

McHenry County’s tax cut, on the other hand, can be reimposed in next year’s tax levy.

For some reason, the official report to the Illinois Department of Revenue does not indicate the County tax burden decreased by the 11.2% that County Board Chairman Jack Franks has been touting.

Tax District			% Change		% Change
	2015	2016	2015-16	2017	2016-17
County	$76,289,016	$79,424,611	4.1%	$71,839,960	-9.5%
Township	26,289,626	25,151,660	-4.3%	24,392,838	-3.0%
Municipalities	69,033,381	68,878,510	-0.2%	69,624,891	1.1%
Schools	52,371,7423	526,711,840	0.6%	536,291,327	1.8%
Comm College	31,683,235	31,660,260	-0.1%	31,755,871	0.3%
FPD	42,984,879	44,580,143	3.7%	45,508,226	2.1%
Park	15,825,100	15,194,971	-4.0%	14,959,818	-1.5%
Sanitary	684,538	689,186	0.7%	701,210	1.7%
Library	16,949,241	17,261,084	1.8%	17,54,5674	1.6%
Cemetery	45,314	35,915	-20.7%	46,607	29.8%
Conservation	19,572,805	19,507,875	-0.3%	19,508,031	0.0%
Misc.	625,175	638,511	2.1%	653,788	2.4%
Total	$823,699,732	$829,734,565	0.7%	$832,828,243	0.4%

These are from the official records sent to the Illinois Department of Revenue, which are linked above.

The figures reflect only taxes billed to McHenry County real estate.

For example, only the real estate taxes sought by the Village of Algonquin which are collected from McHenry County real estate are included in the municipal line.

When looking at the community college line, remember that McHenry County College does not cover Algonquin Unit School District 300. That is served by Elgin Community College. MCC also goes into Kane County, which doesn’t show up here.

See also:

• Tax Information for McHenry County Schools