Property Tax Assessments : Evaluating the System

What would happen if a supermarket charged different customers different prices for the same item? What if the differences became steadily larger? And usually favored better-off customers? Undoubtedly there would be objections or maybe even lawsuits. The chances of getting away with such discriminatory practices would be slim. Yet this same kind of discrimination has been applied to many Illinois property owners through the state's property tax assessment system. This paper analyzes tax assessment practices in all "downstate" Illinois counties (every county except Cook) and shows that over the last 12 years the system has registered unequal assessments of residential properties, significantly undervaluing some homeowners and significantly overvaluing others. Furthermore, these inequities tended to hit lower priced property owners harder: in approximately one-third of the counties owners of lower-priced parcels tended to be increasingly overassessed compared to owners of higher priced properties, while only five counties showed steady improvements in the equal treatment of lower and higher valued properties. The discussion closes with suggestions for improving assessment uniformity in downstate Illinois