The Grundy County assessor's office has been packed over the past few weeks, full of folks questioning their latest property assessments.

The new assessments, which were issued on Dec. 4, have skyrocketed in some instances, with residents seeing assessment increases of 20% to as high as 200% or more over 2018.

Grundy County Supervisor of Assessments Tom Hougas said there are a number of reasons why some residents saw significant increases in their assessments, while others saw little or no change.

"2019 is a quadrennial revaluation year, where every property in the county, all 27,000 parcels, got revalued," Hougas said. "This revaluation is irrespective of prior year's values, but it basically takes all the facts that we know about all the properties, applies the statewide value systems as adjusted for Grundy County to that and then compares it to the actual sales of properties in the last three years."

Hougas said for properties with significant changes, it's possible that the property was under-assessed in the past and has been corrected. But, he added, another reason could potentially be an error on the property record card that caused the change.

"When the computer pulled all the statistics, the square footage of your house, your other improvements... when the computer pulled all those numbers, they may be incorrect and there may be an error in the calculation," he said.

Hougas said people should come in to the office, which is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. except holidays, to review the property record card. The assessor can help identify any errors and assist in filing appeal paperwork with the board of review. Hougas said at a minimum, residents should have their parcel number with them.

Hougas said that while assessment notices normally go out between August and November, this year's December delivery was not necessarily late. Unfortunately, once those notices go out, by law the 30 day appeal deadline is triggered, which meant the inclusion of several holidays this year. Hougas reminded the public that a property assessment is not a tax bill.

"It is our mission to make sure that all assessed valuations are done in a fair and equitable fashion, so that no person feels like they were over or under assessed," Hougas said. "Our office has nothing to do with taxes... The bottom line is, there's actually zero correlation between the increase and decrease in property values and the increase and decrease in property taxes."

Grundy County State's Attorney Jason Helland said he's spoken to a number of people frustrated by the entire process. While Helland's office is not involved in the assessment process, he does advise the Grundy County Board. Helland said he had his own share of concerns as a Grundy property owner himself, noting that his own assessment increased by 20% over 2018, with no land or building improvements.

Helland said that by law, property owners only have that 30 day time period to challenge their assessments. Since notices were sent on Dec. 4, the Jan. 3, 2020 appeals deadline is essentially written in stone.

Only the board of review, currently short one member, can decide who will be granted an extension on that 30 day time period. The board will appoint a third member in January.

"The Grinch that stole Christmas is sending out assessments on Dec. 4," Helland said.

Making matters more difficult, the assessor's geographic information system — GIS — has been down. Helland said access was available at the beginning of the month, but now homeowners turning to the site to prep their appeal are hitting a dead end.

"The government should be open and transparent," he said. "When you crank up the taxes, people should have the ability to see the records."

Helland said without that information available, some people have no choice but to try to have their property appraised, a difficult process as the year closes out and scheduling an appraiser is next to impossible.

With the GIS system not working properly, residents can try looking up their property records through the county treasurer's office. But, to do that, residents need their parcel number.

That number can be used to pull up your tax bill, and that can help narrow down comparable properties.

Helland said the issue is a concern for members of the Grundy County Board. He said the board has not had any discussions on projected increases in tax revenue, because members weren't aware that assessments would be increasing so dramatically in so many cases.

Helland acknowledged that property assessments don't specifically mean that tax bill will rise, but, said the chances that they will eventually rise are strong.

"The bottom line is, the higher the assessed value, the higher your taxes are going to be," he said. "People are worried that they're going to be displaced... People are fleeing Illinois because they can't afford the property taxes."

Helland also questioned how this year's assessments fluctuated so wildly, and said residents are worried because the tax burden also ultimately affects the resale value of the property.

"That board of review is going to be pretty busy," Helland said.

Helland said he cannot emphasize enough the importance of having that appeal submitted by Jan. 3.

Jim Smith, an Illinois Certified General Real Estate Appraiser from Joliet, said the appeals process can sometimes be a bit emotional. But, he said, it's important to keep a cool head during the process. Smith urges people to approach the process with a list of questions and in a professional, courteous way.

"It appears the deck is rather stacked against the consumer," Smith said of the appeals process "All taxpayers have the right to politely and with a civil attitude approach the assessor’s office to make inquiries and discuss their assessments. They should not walk in with 'an attitude' and rudely address the assessor staff; they are just there doing their jobs. That said, the taxpayers deserve a lucid and timely answer to their very legitimate questions and concerns."

Grundy property owners who want to file an appeal must have their paperwork physically turned into the Assessor’s Office or postmarked no later that Jan. 3 at 4:30 p.m.

Information on the process is available on the assessor's website at www.grundyco.org/assessor/board-of-review/.

The Grundy County Board also sent information on the appeals process to residents whose assessments increased by 10% or higher.