If the 1980s in Du Page County are remembered as a decade in which the seeds of a taxpayers` revolution were sown, the 1990s could well be the decade of harvest.
Two independent reports issued Friday confirm what most Du Page taxpayers should know firsthand-that residential property taxes in the 1980s increased with greater rapidity for a greater duration than anywhere else in Illinois and that the same trends will continue this year.
Based on tentative 1989 tax rates released by Du Page County Clerk Gary King, property owners should expect to see tax bills late this month that generally will show increases in the area of 10 percent over last year`s tax bills.
The latest round of increases comes on top of boosts in the four previous years in which 89 of 262 Du Page taxing districts in existence during the period had tax growth greater than 45 percent, including many in excess of 75 percent, according to the Taxpayers` Federation of Illinois, a Springfield-based watchdog group.
In issuing their tax reports, County Clerk King and Douglas L. Whitley, federation president, contended that unless taxpayers take a noticeably more active role in controlling tax spending in their areas, there is no basis to believe that property taxes in Du Page will do anything but continue to increase.
Both said they could foresee no immediate help for beleaguered taxpayers, barring adoption of some major tax-relief measures or an overhaul of the Illinois property tax system.
King said the state`s complex tax system has failed to work in fast-growing Du Page and that the legislative imposition of restraints may be needed.
Whitley said the federation`s study was undertaken last year as a first-ever effort by the organization to provide taxpayers and governmental units with a multiyear overview of tax growth in Du Page in the mid-1980s rather just a snapshot of one tax year.
He said the effort shows the cumulative, long-term effect of spiraling assessment increases coupled with a demand for a greater number of more-expensive public services.
Among other things, Whitley said, the group`s 48-page report is statistical evidence for those who called the March 20 primary in Du Page a tax revolution in which three well-entrenched Republican incumbents were ousted.
Whitley said the Du Page primary results ”gave a strong indication of the level of taxpayers` dissatisfaction with the rapid growth in
. . . property taxes. Taxpayers grow angry at the insensitivity of their local governing bodies when, year after year, property tax growth occurs at a double-digit rate, far outstripping the growth in their earnings,” he said.
Among the federation`s findings were the following:
– If property tax rates had remained constant from 1982 to 1988, the property tax levy in Du Page would have gone up 58 percent in direct proportion to the increase in assessed valuation.
– Property tax rates did not remain constant. On average across Du Page, they increased 2.2 percent from 1982 to 1983; 4.4 percent from 1984 to 1985, and 2.6 percent from 1987 to 1988.
– The average aggregate property tax rate was $6.48 per $100 of assessed value in 1982, compared with $7.47 in 1988, or a 15 percent increase over the six-year period on top of the 58 percent increase in assessed value.
– Hypothetically, an average house in Du Page purchased for $90,000 and assessed at $30,000 in 1982, and which had a total tax bill of $1,944 then, would have an assessed value of $47,400 and a tax bill of $3,539 in 1988-or an increase of 82 percent. During the same period, there was a 23 percent growth in inflation as measured by the National Consumer Price Index. If the same trends were to continue until 1994, the tax bill on the hypothetical example would be $6,441.
– The Du Page taxing districts that have had the greatest impact on growth have been school districts and park districts while-”to our surprise,” Whitley said-townships and municipalities, as a group, showed some restraint.
– People in Du Page have consistently voted to tax themselves even when their assessments have been growing at a double-digit pace. In the 12 elections during the five-year period 1984 through 1988, a majority of the 142 tax-related referendum questions voted on in the county were approved. (An unofficial count of the 32 tax-related questions voted on in Du Page in 1989 and 1990 showed that 15 were approved and 17 rejected. Only 2 of 11 tax-related issues were approved on March 20.)
”It`s not our mission to go out and bash people,” Whitley said. Nevertheless, the federation study does single out eight of the highest typical tax codes in Du Page for 1988 that bear examination by taxpayers. There are two each in Glendale Heights, Carol Stream and Aurora and one each in Woodridge and Bolingbrook.
In what has become a spring ritual, King released the 1989 tentative tax rates for Du Page`s 270 taxing districts Friday and included with them a dire forecast that yet another round of double-digit increases is in store for property owners when they get their tax bills in late April.
”If there truly is a tax revolution (in Du Page), now is the time to continue that-not just voting against people from (March 20) and forgetting about it. They should go to these districts. They should say: `What are you doing with all my money? Prove to me you really need it,` ” King said. ”If they can`t get the answers, they should demand that (taxes) be rebated.
”I`m not here to say they shouldn`t get the money.”
Turning to the 1989 tax bills, King said they reflect a failure of a 50-year-old tax system to work.
”Until people get involved and find out where the money goes and do something about it, taxes in this county will never go down,” King said.
”Just because of the rate of inflation, everything will continue to go up 5, 6, 10 percent every year. Unless people get involved with the districts, they will keep asking for everything they can get.”
The county`s 270 taxing districts have until Friday to reduce their levy requests before King certifies the final tax rates.
The overall value of property in Du Page increased by 13.7 percent in 1989 over 1988, to a total of $12.1 billion from $10.6 billion. The total average tax rate for the period showed a decrease of 3.4 percent, to $7.22 per $100 of assessed valuation from $7.48 per $100 of assessed valuation last year.
In an often confusing holdover from the Depression era, property taxes computed one year are payable the next year under Illinois law. Du Page tax bills are payable in equal installments by June 1 and Sept. 1. Tax bills are computed by multiplying the sum total of all the individual tax rates within a given tax code or area by each $100 of equalized assessed value on a piece of property.
Du Page taxpayers whose property was reassessed in 1989-and that includes about 90 percent of the properties-can expect to see higher tax bills May 1, particularly if taxing bodies in an area asked for more money this year than the year before or merely held the line on taxes.
In theory, as the assessed value of property increases, tax rates should decline, provided the amount of tax money that governments request, or levy, remains constant.
In Du Page, the trend in the 1980s was for many taxing districts to increase levies to take full advantage of any increase in assessed value. So while individual tax rates per $100 of assessed value may have remained steady or even decreased, as many did in 1989, the actual taxes being billed have increased.
Taxes are almost certain to go up in areas of Du Page where voters created new taxing districts, approved tax-rate increases or approved the sale of bonds by referendum.
Last year`s 13.7 percent increase in overall assessed valuation marked the third consecutive year in which the county had a double-digit increase in the total value of property. Du Page`s assessed value increased 12.2 percent in 1988 and 16.8 percent in 1987. That compares with increases of 8.8 percent in 1986, 5.3 percent in 1985, 3.1 percent in 1984 and 2.4 percent in 1983.
More than 6,193 owner-occupied homes were added to the tax rolls in Du Page last year, based on King`s analysis of the number of homeowners exemptions granted by the county. The total number of homeowners exemptions granted in 1989 was 206,235.
At least 1,754 more people qualified last year for an additional exemption by virtue of being older than 65 last year, compared with 1988 when 26,672 senior exemptions were granted.
An analysis by King of 46 typical homes selected only from incorporated areas of Du Page`s nine townships showed that the assessed value of 43 homes increased while 2 decreased and one stayed the same. The actual tax bill on the homes for 1989 compared with 1988 increased in 43 of 46 instances.
The taxpayers` federation researchers did not study how tax money was being spent or make judgments about spending trends, Whitley said.
