Lower Property Values Don't Always Mean Lower Tax Bills

Wheatland Township officials say property values are likely to drop nearly 5 percent when this year’s upcoming quadrennial assessments are done.   

But that doesn’t mean homeowners will see a lower tax bill. In fact, many Wheatland homeowners most likely will be writing an even bigger tax check, assessors say. About a third of Plainfield residents live in Wheatland Township. 

When property values sink at the same time the schools and city governments need more money to keep providing the services those tax dollars pay for, taxpayers get a double whammy in the wallet. 

“People think they’re going to be paying less tax when their property assessments go down,” said Sherry Lee, deputy assessor at Wheatland Township.  “Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way.” 

When property values go down, the loss of assessed property value means everybody has to chip in a little more to yield the same amount of cash for local governmental services, including schools, cops and fire protection, Lee said.

And this year, those agencies in the township are asking for more money to meet the need. Indian Prairie School District 204, for example, recently approved a 3.85 budget increase and district officials say residents can expect to see their taxes increase about 2.7 percent, according to Naperville Patch reports. 

“In bad economic times when property values go down and governments get bigger budgets, it’s you and I -- the homeowner -- who wind up paying,” Lee said. 

Nobody can say what will be the upshot of Plainfield Township assessments because they haven’t been done for as long as 30 years. But Plainfield School District 202 officials say school taxes will go down because of debt restructuring. Village of Plainfield officials did not raise the tax rate and predict taxpayers should see the village portion of their tax bill sink 6 percent next year.