IL - REAL ESTATE TAX BILLS COMING SOON By Jim Muir [Wed Aug 15 2001] FRANKLIN COUNTY -- Franklin County residents can expect to have their 2001 real estate tax bills in hand by late August.

"At least that's the goal right now," said Franklin County Treasurer Juva Wynn. "We've still got a ways to go, but we're still shooting to have the tax bills out by the end of August, with the first installment due in late September and the second installment due in October."

Wynn said the annual task of mailing out 29,000 tax bills was moving along quite well until a computer glitch earlier this week set the date back at least one week.

Wynn said the setback moved the process from her office back to the county clerk's office, where reports concerning tax rates had to be reprocessed.

The supervisor of assessments office closed out final numbers on 2000 taxes payable in 2001 two weeks ago and submitted those numbers to the Illinois Department of Revenue, who reviewed the numbers and then submitted a final multiplier for the county.

After the multiplier is determined, the IDR then tallies the total equalized assessed valuation. Those numbers are submitted to the county clerk's office, where the levies of the different taxing districts are divided by the total equalized assessed valuation to determine the tax rates.

Regardless of computer glitches or mathematical equations, this year's tax problems pale in comparison to last year's, when more than 1,300 complaints were filed by Franklin County taxpayers who thought they had been unfairly assessed.

The IDR issued a multiplier of 1 for Franklin County, which means that the county met the state guidelines and that total assessments were within one percent of the levels the state mandates.

Those guidelines were not met, however, until the county once again added a factor for several different townships that fell far below the state assessment levels.

Browning Township, for example, was underassessed between 1996-1998.

In 1996 all property in Browning Township was assessed at 25.91 percent. In 1997, the total dropped to 21.77 percent. In 1998, property was assessed at 29.37 percent for a three-year average of 25.68 -- far below the state's mandated 33.33 percent.

If the county had not issued factors, the state would have issued a higher multiplier which would have affected all county taxpayers.

A factor is the number multiplied by the overall assessed valuation of a township that will bring the equalized assessed valuation to 33.33 percent.

Browning Township, after showing a 30 percent increase last year, once again had the largest factor at 8.9 percent.

Other townships showing a substantial increase include: Frankfort Township, 8.5 percent; Six Mile Township, 6.1 percent; Denning Township, 5.7 percent; and Benton, 4.6 percent.

Humm emphasized that even though factors have been added, real estate taxes might be further increased by taxing districts' levies.

http://www.southernillinoisan.com/rednews/2001/08/16/build/local/LOC002.html

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2001