Property Tax Rate Delays

[UPDATE: The mailing date has been changed already since yesterday's post. From the News-Gazette website today:

Champaign County property tax bills are going to be mailed even later than projected.

The new tentative tax date for tax bills to be mailed is May 28, eight days later than the last tentative date, according to county Treasurer Laurel Prussing.

The further delay is intended to give taxing districts enough time to review their extensions and rates and take up any issues with the county clerk's office...

The delay in tax bills means property owners will have longer before the first installment payments are due. If tax bills are mailed on May 28, the first installment will likely be due June 28, according to Prussing.

More at the full blurb here. No other updates for now.]

More property tax complications have popped up since an initial delay in setting the rates in Champaign County. Local governments depend on these figures and timelines to plan out their budgets. The News-Gazette had information on the original delay last month. Updates on more recent complications, especially with Urbana, below.

Champaign County tax bills coming 3 weeks late
County officials said they had been missing a piece of information from the state Department of Revenue that's necessary to complete their work on 2018 tax bills payable this year.

The tentative mailing date for tax bills is now May 20, according to the Champaign County clerk's office.

In most Illinois counties, tax bills mailed after May 1 are considered to be late.

County officials blamed the delay in tax bills on a delay by the state Department of Revenue in issuing a final county multiplier, which is needed for the calculations done by the county clerk's office on tax rates...

The first installment on property taxes will be due 30 days after the mailing date for the bills, with the second installment tentatively due on Sept. 3, county officials said.

The state Department of Revenue didn't respond to questions about whether it was behind on providing multipliers to counties. But Champaign County Supervisor of Assessments Paula Bates said she provided assessment information to the state on time in February.

More at the full article here. The News-Gazette had information on the tentative tax rates last week, but the numbers on the County website were taken down the next day (more on why below with the Urbana numbers):

The tentative 2018 rates for Rantoul residents continued to be highest in Champaign County, though they dropped this year from about $12 per $100 of assessed value to about $11 per $100 of assessed value.

Champaign property owners in the Unit 4 school district will be paying 2018 rates in the $9 per $100 range, about the same as last year.

The rate for the majority of Champaign taxpayers is tentatively set at $9.0457 per $100. Based on that rate, taxes on a $150,000 home (assessed at one-third its market value) will be $4,522 this year, about $4 more than last year, excluding any exemptions on the property that would lower the bill...

Elsewhere in Champaign County, rates for Allerton, Bondville, Broadlands, Fisher, Mahomet, Philo, Royal, Sadorus, St. Joseph and Tolono are all tentatively set in the $7 range per $100.

In Foosland, Gifford, Homer, Ivesdale, Longview and Ogden, rates are in the $8 range per $100, and joining Champaign in the $9 range are Ludlow and Thomasboro.

Savoy residents will tentatively be paying rates in the $7 or $8 range, depending on which township they're in and whether or not the MTD is included on their bills.

County officials have set a tentative date of May 20 for tax bills to hit the mail, with the first installment payment tentatively due June 20.

More at the full article here and an update on Urbana's numbers from an article the next day on Urbana's property tax situation:

The dispute over Urbana's tax rate is one reason County Executive Darlene Kloeppel asked the county clerk's office to remove tentative property-tax rates that were posted Wednesday from its website Thursday.

Kloeppel said tax-rate information shouldn't have been released to the public before taxing districts got a chance to review their rates and final rates were set...

Hannan said the county clerk's office incorrectly set Urbana's 2018 municipal tax rate — which is part of the overall rate Urbana residents will pay this year — at $1.5591 per $100 of assessed value.

The city had directed the county to set its tax rate lower than $1.3555 if any hospital properties were taxable for 2018, so the city's rate will be reduced to 1.3499, Hannan said...

Andy Rhodes, the county's IT director who is assisting with this year's tax work in the county clerk's office, said the tentative municipal rates for both Champaign and Urbana will be lowered when final rates are issued.

"The county clerk's office missed applying abatements to the city of Champaign and city of Urbana levies, and it generated an artificially high rate," he said.

That full article here. Related Cheat Sheet post on more issues with the City of Urbana property tax rate here.


[Updated: originally posted on 5/13/2019 at 9:26am]