Misleading Property Tax Referendums in Cook County?

by Brian Costin With election day rapidly approaching, and early voting already underway, citizens in a number of Cook County communities are in the process deciding on 10 property tax hike referendums. A 2006 reform to state laws intended to give voters an accurate estimate of how a property tax hike referendum would affect them....

by Brian Costin

With election day rapidly approaching, and early voting already underway, citizens in a number of Cook County communities are in the process deciding on 10 property tax hike referendums. A 2006 reform to state laws intended to give voters an accurate estimate of how a property tax hike referendum would affect them.

However, a Daily Herald article raises the issue that some of the referendums on the ballot this year are misleading and understating cost to taxpayer and fail to account for the state property tax multiplier/property tax equalizer.

Prospect Heights Elementary District 23 and the Indian Trails Library District, based in Wheeling, are among 10 Cook County taxing bodies asking for tax increases this election that are running misleading ballot questions because they don’t take into account the multiplier, or property tax equalizer, says the president of the Cook County Township Assessors Association.

In District 23, where the ballot question says the tax increase would cost homeowners $35 for every $100,000 of their home’s market value, the actual figure is $118, said Ali ElSaffar, president of the assessors association and also the Oak Park Township assessor.

The real tax rate is 230% higher than what appears on the ballot. This referendum misleads voters, to be sure. Unfortunately, District 23 is not the only area government body with a misleading referendum question.

At the Indian Trails Library, which is primarily in Cook County but has a little land in Lake County as well, Cook County residents will pay $9.34 per $100,000 rather than the $2.77 listed on the ballot, he said.
The red flag that something was wrong is the big difference between the $2.77 rate on the Cook ballot and the $9.25 per $100,000 written on the Lake County ballot, he said.

So what’s to blame for the misleading tax estimates?

Both Indian Trails and District 23 used the law firm Chapman and Cutler to help write their ballot questions. A partner with the firm says their language is what Illinois law requires.

“The statute doesn’t say use the multiplier,” she said. “What I’ve said to people is if they want the multiplier included, the General Assembly should have said that.”
The idea behind the 2006 law change was to give voters a realistic idea of how much their taxes would increase if the tax increase passed, said ElSaffar.

If the idea is to give voters a realistic idea of how much their taxes will increase, then why is there such a huge underestimation of the tax impact on the property taxpayers? Why does this problem seem isolated to Cook County and not other counties?

Interesting questions indeed for voters to think about before casting their vote on these tax hike proposals.