Pols pull plug on plan to give North Shore properties floodplain property tax breaks

Three months ago, new Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi sent a letter to more than 1,100 homeowners in New Trier Township all but promising them a surprise property tax break because they live on a floodplain.

It’s now clear they’re not going to get it.

Kaegi’s office released a statement late Tuesday blaming the Cook County Board of Review for the reversal.

But in doing so, the assessor acknowledged his office never formally applied for the relief he originally told the homeowners he had already requested.

The unusual situation began this summer after the assessor’s office completed its work on issuing new assessments for New Trier, location to some of the county’s priciest residential real estate — some of it located within the floodplain of the North Branch of the Chicago River.

Weeks later, the assessor began using floodplain data in the computer models created to set fair market values for other townships being reassessed this year.

Because floodplain information had not been available for the New Trier computer model, Kaegi said he decided to correct the previous assessments through an infrequently-used legal procedure called a Certificate of Correction.

In an August 19 letter to the 1,136 affected homeowners, Kaegi wrote: “Because assessed values for New Trier Township have already been certified in our office, we have submitted a Certificate of Correction with your property’s new assessed value to the Cook County Board of Review. In the next few months, you will receive a confirmation letter from the Board of Review with the corrected value.”

Rich Hein/Chicago Sun-Times

The letters from Kaegi also listed the new “corrected” market value he was projecting for each homeowner, showing assessment reductions of 19% on average.

Most of the affected properties were million-dollar-plus homes in Winnetka. Kaegi’s proposed changes would have trimmed a combined $31 million from their assessments, saving them millions of dollars in taxes over the next three years.

But the assessor’s office never actually submitted any applications for Certificates of Correction after getting pushback from the board.

In Tuesday’s statement, Kaegi spokesman Scott Smith explained the situation this way:

“We had several meetings and conversations with the Board of Review about our intention to issue Certificates of Correction for assessments of properties in floodplains. At the conclusion of these meetings, the Board of Review said they would not process the Certificates and would prefer the issue get resolved during their appeals process. The Board of Review is an independent office, separate from the Assessor’s Office, and is within its statutory right to make this decision.”

The Board of Review issued its own statement Wednesday through William O’Shields, the board’s chief deputy commissioner, explaining that it had objected to the assessor’s approach on procedural grounds.

“The Certificate of Correction process is a time intensive process, and the Board traditionally handles a few Certificates of Correction adjustments each year, not more than 1,000 adjustments,” O”Shields wrote.

Kaegi’s proposal would have jeopardized the timely issuance of tax bills, because the Board would have been required to consider the merits of each case individually, the board contends.

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The board has not yet completed its work on individual assessment appeals from New Trier Township.

But rulings to date make clear there will be no wide-scale reductions of the sort contemplated by Kaegi based on floodplain status.

O’Shields said earlier this week that some of the affected homeowners who filed their own tax complaints may see their assessments reduced based on more traditional grounds, such as lack of uniformity or an appraisal showing a lower value. But any such reductions are expected to be more modest than what Kaegi proposed.

In numerous instances, Kaegi was proposing to lower the assessed values of expensive mansions far below the price at which they had recently sold.

Tuesday’s statement from Kaegi’s office made clear the Board of Review has the final say on the matter — at least for this year.

“Property owners can file appeals with our office when their townships are open for appeals again next year,” Smith said.

The assessor’s office said it will continue to use floodplain data in its property valuation models going forward.