Lemont Property Tax Rates Climb

Property tax rates for 2010 have increased across all taxing districts in Lemont Township, according to a report released last week by the Cook County Clerk David Orr's Office.

Tax rates for more than 1,500 taxing agencies in Chicago and suburban Cook County were released by the Clerk's office Thursday, revealing a 2.68 percent increase in property taxes countywide. 

Although assessed values have decreased on many Lemont homes, residents could see a jump in their tax bills when they are mailed out in October. Just how much is hard to determine, according to the Orr's Office.

"It's very difficult to make blanket statements, even within municipalities," Bill Vaselopulos, manager of the Clerk's Tax Extension Department, said at a press conference.

Earlier: 

Last December, tax levies were submitted to the Clerk's Office by different taxing districts, such as county, township as well as school and park districts. Essentially, a levy is a request from each district for a certain amount of money from taxpayers.

The Clerk's Office calculates new property tax rates for each district according to these requests. This is done by allocating the full amount of the levy among all properties withing the taxing district, according to their Equalized Assessment Value (EAV).

A property's EAV is determined by applying a "state equalizer" to all assessed values.

By law, counties are required to assess at 33.3 percent of market value. In Cook County, however, the 10/25 Ordinance changed the way property assessment levels are reflected. Under the law, the assessed value of residential property represents 10 percent of market value, while the assessed value of a commercial property represents 25 percent of market value.

Since Cook County is not assessing at the state standard of 33.3 percent, the Illinois Department of Revenue is forced to bridge the gap by increasing the equalizer used in the tax bill formula. This year, Orr announced that the equalizer was 3.3000, down 2.08 percent from last year's 3.3701.

Individual tax bills are then determined by adding the tax rates of all districts a property falls under. Under the Property Tax Exemption Limitation Law — more commonly known as the tax cap ‚ districts can only increase their tax rate by the lesser figure of five percent or the rate of inflation as determined by the Consumer Price Index.

Since the PTELL rate was 2.7 this year, districts could only levy 2.7 percent more than they did last year, officials said. Next year, tax revenues will be limited to 1.5 percent more than the amount extended this year, according the the Clerk's report.

Because each home may reside in a different combination of taxing districts, it is hard to predict what the average property tax bill will look like for someone living in Lemont Township.

All Cook County residents, for example, can expect an additional 3 cents on their property tax bill for every $100 of their EAV, assuming their home's assessment value has remained the same. Residents in  will pay a higher amount as well.

Property tax bills are expected to go out the first week of October.

More:

2010 Tax Rates

Mariann Devlin contributed to this report.