Lake County Citizen's Group Exposes Assessment Abuses

Another side heard from on the property tax discussion.

When it comes to property assessments, many homeowners feel utterly powerless. Assessments are carried out, for the most part, behind the doors of a veiled bureaucracy that is mostly unaccountable, opaque and often unfair.

After six months and hundreds of hours of research, the Citizens' Action Project (CAP) has found in a White Paper that there are serious problems in the Lake County assessment system that results in inaccurate assessment, lack of due process and uneven treatment of similar properties. CAP is calling for immediate investigations by the county board and state legislature into these practices.

"The major part of the problem -- at least in understanding the assessment process in Lake County -- is that few assessors can provide a consistent explanation on how they arrive at assessments, the process of valuing a property for tax purposes,'' according to CAP's white paper.

CAP examined home assessments because it was the collective experience of far too many Lake County taxpayers that this process was unfair. It was discovered during citizen assessment appeals – most of which were summarily rejected without much examination – that assessors were adopting methods that ran contrary to Illinois state assessment guidelines.

Like most Lake County taxpayers, CAP members are alarmed by the rate of increases seen in assessments – ranging from 10 percent to 50 percent. Illinois property taxes, according to the Tax Foundation, are among the highest in the country. If homeowners are going to be able to afford to stay in Lake County, the assessment process needs to be brought under control.

CAP has support from State Senator Michael Bond and Larry Leafblad, Lake County Board Member and Vice Chair of Revenue, Records, and Legislative Committee.

The Citizens Action Project is a newly formed volunteer organization dedicated to fairness, accountability and transparency in public agencies. The group has filed for 501(c)4 status under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. To read the complete white paper, go to www.citizensactionproject.org.