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Tax Coalition Seeks to Stop Unwarranted Assessment Reductions
» Karen Haave - Frankfort Neue Press - 10.23.08


Frankfort School officials are comparing potential loss of commercial property taxes to sitting down to pay your monthly bills and finding out that your employer has just reduced your salary by a substantial amount."

School officials and a coalition of taxing districts including the Village of Frankfort, L-W High School District, and the junior college, fire, library and park districts, have been doing battle with local businesses for over four years in an effort to stop unwarranted assessment reductions.

Successful appeals mean a cut in the property tax revenues that help fund services, facilities and programs provided by taxing districts.

School officials said this week that 19 new assessment/tax appeals have just been filed by commercial properties in Frankfort for 2008. If successful, they "will take away a considerable amount of revenue that has already been received by the taxing bodies," officials pointed out.

Moreover, they emphasize, "An important fact about this situation is that once the commercial tax revenues are lost through the appeals process, the tax burden shifts back to the homeowners in increased real estate tax bills."

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The district members of the coalition stand to lose a total of $650,000 in revenues if the new assessment appeals are approved.

In District 157-C, a total request for $6,450,299 in 2008 assessment reductions would set the district back $199,469 in tax rebates from existing funds, money that already has been collected and is part of the district's operating budget.

"Our homeowners are paying their fair share," said Frankfort Schools Superintendent Robert Madonia, "the commercial properties should also do so.

"We are definitely not anti-business. Our schools and students have a great relationship with our local businesses. But we believe that unless a business has been improperly assessed, it needs to pay its fair share."

Frankfort School District began working with the other Frankfort area taxing districts in 2004, creating the Frankfort Taxing Body Coalition, to block unfair assessment reductions.

"Being proactive instead of reactive is important as we face a new challenge of increased commercial development for the Frankfort community," Madonia said.

"As new business comes into the village, its tax dollars help offset the tax burden on the homeowners. However, when these businesses seek assessment reductions at a lower level, large sums of money in tax revenue are lost to the schools and other taxing bodies.'

The Frankfort Taxing Body Coalition is working towards protecting tax revenue. The Coalition is concerned about the loss of tax dollars due to commercial businesses seeking assessment reductions through the Property Tax Appeal Board and they share in the costs to intervene.

The Will County Board of Review provides the taxing bodies with a notice whenever there is an assessment appeal reduction in excess of $100,000. Dr. Madonia reported, "We want to remain responsible to our taxpayers because these tax appeals continue to further shift the burden of taxation to the homeowner with each assessment reduction. We want to make it clear that we are going to continue to intervene in this assessment appeal process, rather than being complacent. We want to be fiscally responsible and support the homeowners of our community."

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