Tax expert Andrea Raila examines 224 pages of tax information. (Photo by Troy T. Heinzeroth)

In this age of computerization and tightened belts, everything from Sunday newspapers to telephone books has slimmed down. Yet when some local residents recently received their Assessment Notice roll of Lake Township properties, they found it weighed in at a whopping one pound, 3.5 ounces and consisted of 224 broadsheet pages of newsprint.

On its front page the document states, “Property owners in Lake Township were recently mailed a ‘Notice of Proposed Assessed Valuation’ for their properties. If you are a property owner in this township, your assessment notice and this publication will allow you the opportunity to check the fairness of your proposed assessed valuation.”

Lake Township was known as the Town of Lake when it was annexed to the City of Chicago in 1889. It is bounded by present-day Pershing Road, 87th Street, Cottage Grove Avenue, and Cicero Avenue.

Maura Kownacki, a spokesperson for the Cook County Office of the Assessor, explained that, according to the Illinois property tax code, assessment information must be printed in local community papers and distributed widely in an effort to create transparency in the process. Publication in local papers is a “service” to taxpayers, she said, and allows them to review proposed assessments in their township.

For Lake Township, the reassessment letters were mailed February 11 and the roll was published February 17 and 18. One of the community newspapers in which the roll was placed has a circulation of 20,000 households, and the other has a circulation of 15,000, Kownacki said.

“Copies of these papers containing the proposed assessments also are made available at local libraries and city/village municipal buildings for taxpayers to view,” said Kownacki.

According to Kownacki, between August 2009 and February 2010, the roll was published in 11 different community newspapers in eight different townships. Circulation figures for those newspapers reveal that a printout of the local reassessment roll was sent to more than 350,000 households.

Questioning expenditure

“I question whether this expenditure of taxpayer money is an error in an electronic age,” said Andrea Raila, a real estate tax and public policy consultant. “All of the data and more are published on the Assessor’s website, and even people without computers could access the information at their local library.

“The information published in the roll is supposed to make it possible for property owners to compare properties and make sure the process is truthful, honest, and fair. There has to be oversight, especially in hard economic times.

But the printed listing is difficult to navigate and does not include pertinent information like exemptions and omitted assessments,” Raila explained.

The printed assessment rolls contain the name of the registered property owner, house address number, permanent index number (PIN), neighborhood code, class, and total assessed valuation.

The website www.cookcountyassessor.com, however, provides all of this information as well as much more; a simple online PIN search brings up everything from photographs and a description of the building to its appeals history and exemptions.

Sharon Eckersall, the Republican candidate for the office of Cook County Assessor who has just completed three terms as Evanston Township Assessor, said, “The website for the County has improved, and taxpayers are now able to appeal the assessment online.

Pictures of all properties are now posted on the website. We must do something to make it easier for people to understand the assessment and appeals process, and I am strongly in favor of providing more thorough information.

“Simply comparing two properties on the printed roll is an incomplete picture. Are the properties in the same classification? Is there a senior freeze on the assessment? Is there an omitted assessment on the property? It is misleading if it doesn’t include that information, and the website is definitely more comprehensive than the printout. I am in favor of cutting spending and demystifying the process,” said Eckersall.

Green Party candidate for the office of Cook County Assessor Robert Grota said, “I support making County offices more efficient, reducing waste or duplication of efforts, and cutting spending where it is not needed.” Grota grew up in a family of tax professionals and now develops assessment software.

Legal issues

Joe Berrios, Democratic candidate for Cook County Assessor, said, “The Assessor is mandated by law to notify people by U.S. mail and by community newspaper, so it would be an issue that would have to go to the legislature to change. I would be very open to see if there is a different procedure that would save some money and some trees.

“I can only imagine what it would be like to be a newspaper delivery boy the day that thing went out,” Berrios said, laughing. Actual cost to the taxpayers varies from township to township, but Kownacki of the Assessor’s office said, “The price is set by state statute and is determined by the number of column lines utilized.”

The adopted budget line item for Printing and Publishing in the 2009 Assessor’s budget is $1,810,500. “We support working with the legislature to look at alternative means of publication that are more cost-effective,” Kownacki said.

“The Cook County Assessor’s Office website site does contain a wealth of assessment information. The site allows taxpayers to compare the assessed value of a property with the assessed values of similar homes in their neighborhoods. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to a computer or is comfortable in using a computer to obtain assessment information.”