Who knew? Not me, but I don’t pay as much attention as I should. Effective with the “2009 tax year” Cook County is moving toward just two assessment classes: 10% and 25%. That means that residential and vacant are now supposed to be assessed the same, which is probably good since Assessor Houlihan just couldn’t seem to accept that, under the old system, vacant was supposed to be assessed at a higher percentage of value than owner occupied 1-6 unit residential. This change will reduce some tax bills and raise others, but total revenue is likely unaffected due to the multiplier which the Illinois Department of Revenue will calculate.
I can’t find any mention of this in the daily newspapers, although separately there seems to be a project to reassess all parcels in the county, instead of just the 1/3 done in a normal year. (Is this legal? Probably it doesn’t matter.) See Break for suburban homes? – ‘This is not a gimmick,’ Houlihan says, but taxes could still increase Chicago Sun Times May 12 ’09.
Just in case anybody thinks they understand how assessments work.