LET’S SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
The state legislature passed House Bill 1001 which would have the county assessors accept the responsibility for all townships with less than 15,000 parcels.
Lake County has 11 townships. Five have less than the required 15,000 parcels. If you will remember, at the last election there was a referendum on the ballot to see if the residents of the township(s) wanted to keep the local township office. Five of the six townships were retained with only North Township losing the referendum. North Township residents now have to go to the County Assessor for any questions regarding their property.
For the upcoming reassessment process for 2010 taxes payable in 2011, the County Assessor is in favor of contracting out the reassessments in townships that are under county control. Two of the township offices that were retained, one of whose assessor has only been in office for two months, have opted to join the county. Calumet, Ross and St. John Townships prefer to do their own reassessments. We do not want outside contractors. The most important lesson learned from that experience is that to properly conduct a reassessment of this size, you have to know the territory, and that is what you elected me to do. I do not believe that the property owners have such a short memory that they have forgotten the total mess Lake County had after the 2002 reassessment by outside contractors. We are still correcting errors of that time.
The comment I hear most today is “my property will not sell today for what it is assessed” and this may be true. Today’s assessment is based on sales of the last two previous years and your property is probably worth a little less than two years ago; however; the above is a state regulation which we have to use.
With property values changing so rapidly in certain neighborhoods, the upcoming reassessment is a very important one. The reassessment will begin July 1, 2009 and it will be for 2010 taxes payable in 2011. Please cooperate with the deputy assessors when they check your property to correct any errors that may exist.
It is an honor and privilege to work with the property owners of St. John Township as their elected representative in assessment matters. You can reach me at the office (219-365-2777, email: hank_adams2002@yahoo.com, or through my website htt//hankadams.com. We welcome your comments.
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