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By Mike Nester For The Prairie Advocate News

MOUNT CARROLL – The Carroll County Board of Review denied two requests on Monday, Feb. 20, made by the Eastland School District regarding the recent tax assessments in Freedom Township.

The Review Board ruled against a written protest and appeal regarding the tax assessment increase and also refused a motion requesting recusal of board member Lou Schloderbach.

In the Protest and Appeal of the tax assessment in Freedom Township, the Eastland School Board was seeking an eight percent decrease in real estate assessments instead of the nearly 20 percent that the state formula had determined.

At its January meeting, the Eastland Board voted 5-2 to protest the assessments

“No one refuted the fact that property values had declined,” Eastland Supt. of Schools Mark Hansen said. “The concern was that the re-assessments as published not only corrected for real declines in value, but were improperly lowered below that level in a non-quadrennial year.”

“This is particularly concerning as Eastland depends primarily on property taxes for its funding, and given the fact that state funding is being reduced,” added the Eastland School leader. “If the appeal is not successful, District revenues will be reduced by approximately $275,000 above and beyond what is already being lost as a result of declining EAV and reductions in state funding.”

Too much, too soon

In their protest, Eastland argued the property in question shouldn’t have been reassessed prior to the four-year statute and it should have only been reduced by eight percent, instead of the 18.27 percent.

The Review Board, comprised of Judy Dampman and Richard Delaney, examined all 17 points of the Eastland complaint, but disagreed with the school district’s view of how the property taxes were derived; going strictly by numbers determined by state statutes.

Carroll County Chief Assessor Annette Gruhn presented the Board of Review with state statutes that showed her legal obligation to reassess Freedom Township.

Gruhn said after receiving the states numbers on the 58 sales of property in Freedom Township in 2010, plus sales for the past two years, the sales ratio was 58.48, way over the 33.3 percent range. She stated this was the reason for the reassessment and added it was the highest level they ever had.

Carroll County’s assessor explained that housing sales weren’t off much but the lots, especially those at Lake Carroll, were way over-assessed. She said many of the lots lost 3/4 their value.

Gruhn held a telephone conference call with members of the Illinois Dept. of Revenue about the reassessment of Freedom Township and discussed the Sales Ratio Study of 58.48. She also spoke with IDOR officials regarding the early reassessment and presented two state statutes verifying the early assessment and the action.

Gruhn said Carroll County followed the same procedure in 2003 when property values were on the rise and increased the assessed value by 14.3 percent.

The Board of Review felt the Eastland School District didn’t provide any evidence to dispute the state’s numbers, similar to when citizens protest their personal real estate taxes. Both Dampman and Delaney said they needed to see some numbers to help prove the property was under assessed.

Supt. Hansen told the Prairie Advocate it’s important to understand that whether or not the District is successful in its appeal, it will be generating less revenues next year than this year. 

“Because everyone agrees that property values have declined, the only question is how much less,” said Hansen.

According to Hansen, if property is under-assessed it:

- further reduces the revenue the District can access to operate its programs;

- increases the burden on property owners whose property is accurately assessed;

- creates a “false bottom” from which future equalizations may be applied;

- and does undue harm at a time when the State is not meeting its constitutional obligation to fund public education.

He said these were some of the considerations that individual Eastland Board members weighed in deciding whether to appeal the assessments.

In 2010 the equalized assessed value of the Eastland District was $195,525,469. It is now estimated to be $171,075,140.

Recusal request denied

The Eastland School District also filed a motion with the Board of Review requesting recusal of board member Lou Schloderbach because in part they felt he couldn’t “fairly and impartially review” and give a “fair and impartial assessment of all property” while ruling on the Freedom Township issue. Schloderbach resides in Freedom Township.

In the motion, the Eastland Board said Schloderbach addressed the school board at its Jan. 18 meeting and according to the motion, “expressed concern about any attempt by the Board of Education to protest tax assessment within Freedom Township, the legal costs of such protests, and asked questions that reasonably indicate that he believed such effort was unwarranted.”

The Eastland Board felt Schloderbach had publicly and irrevocably demonstrated that he cannot fairly and impartially consider the matter.

The Board of Review denied the motion citing that Schloderbach was acting as a taxpayer in the Eastland School District and not as a member of the Carroll County Board of Review. They were presented with a legal ruling from State’s Attorney Scott Brinkmeier who said he felt the law stated that Schloderbach was not in any violation of “fair and impartial” review.

The Board of Review had also requested a recording of what Schloderbach had said at the meeting and were told that no such copy existed.

Both Dampman and Delaney said Schloderbach could abstain if he felt there was an issue. Schloderbach did not attend the Feb. 20 hearing.

The Eastland School District now has the option of having a hearing on the tax assessment issue with the Board of Review. According to Gruhn, a hearing has yet to be scheduled.

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Board of Review Denies Eastland on Both Counts