One Tinley Park Offers Free Property Tax Assessment Help

TINLEY PARK, IL — After living in her Radcliffe Estates house for about 10 years, Amanda Litko noticed her taxes creeping up, but appealing her property assessment felt like a daunting task.

But then she heard about a free June workshop in Tinley Park that teaches residents how to do it and thought she'd give it a try. After an hourlong seminar and another 20 minutes or so of her own time, she filed an appeal. Her savings? $1,200.

"I was tickled pink," she said.

The workshop is sponsored by One Tinley Park, the political party founded by Trustee Mike Glotz and Village Clerk Kristin Thirion. Glotz, who holds an uncanny inventory of comparable houses in his head, began helping residents wade through the process of challenging their county property assessments about 10 years ago. Thirion joined him in 2016.

They set out to demystify a process for homeowners who often believe that they need to hire attorneys or other private organizations to help them with. Glotz and Thirion wanted to show them that they could do it on their own. All of the access and information they need is publicly available. A bit of tutoring, they thought, might help.

"People are sick of getting taxed," Glotz said. "And we just wanted to help them."

Linda Patterson is one of the Tinley residents who wanted a little relief. She remembered the day about seven years ago when she was talking to a neighbor who lived a block or so away from her. She had a house bigger than Patterson's, but paid about $2,000 less in property taxes.

"I thought: 'That's not right,'" she said.

Patterson shelled out money for a tax attorney and another service, both of which saved her little in the end.

Then she heard about the seminar, tried it, and filed an appeal on her own. Her savings? $1,200 in the first year.

"I am so grateful about the amount of time these people are putting into this," she said. "It's amazing."

She was so thrilled, she recruited several family members to take the class — all of whom saved money in the end, too, she said.

Glotz, Thirion and their colleagues use video, slide presentations and hands-on assistance to teach residents how to find the assessor's office website, understand the process, locate forms and find comparable properties they need to make their case. They'll even sit down with residents to help them locate those comparables, if necessary.

This year, first-year Trustee Mike Mueller helped streamline the process they use to do that, so finding information is fast — maybe 15 or 20 minutes, both Litko and Patterson said.

"Mike, Kristin and the group made it even simpler this year when they taught us to locate comparable," Litko said. "I brought my dad over there this year and they actually sat with my dad and located comparables on the spot for him."

Each of the One Tinley Park members volunteer their time to put together the seminar. The cost is free. Some residents have offered payment, Glotz said, so they ask only that those people donate to a local charity instead.

"One of the biggest things we saw when we were campaigning was that people were talking about their tax bills," Mueller said. "We wanted to take some of the burden off them."

So far, only Cook County data is available for them to work with. However, Mueller said, plans are in the works with Will County to devise a way to bring the same services to Tinley residents who live in Will.

For more information or for questions, contact the team at the One Tinley Park Facebook page.