Following some notable delays in the publication of the 2022 assessments that contributed to some holiday season tax bill due dates, this year’s round of assessments could be on the horizon a little bit sooner.

Monroe County Supervisor of Assessments Carl Wuertz said 2023 property assessments could be out in the next month.

When asked if there was any reason for a delay this year – assessments have previously been released around this time of the year or sooner – Wuertz said his office’s progress so far has been good given the late start they had.

“For what we do in the office usually takes a year to get done anyway, so since we were so late last year, I kinda thought we were doing pretty good by getting them out in May,” Wuertz said. “There’s nothing major as far as a stall, it’s just us doing our work.”

At Monday’s Monroe County Board meeting, Monroe County Treasurer Kevin Koenigstein expressed hopes that assessments would soon be coming out.

He noted an upcoming 5 cent postage increase beginning July 14 would add about $1,000 to his department’s budget expenditures when property tax bills are ready to be mailed.

Last year’s assessments were published in the June 14 issue of the Republic-Times, and tax bills were mailed Oct. 11, making it unlikely this year’s tax bills would be ready before that July postage increase.

Once property owners receive assessment notices, they have 30 days to lodge formal complaints with the Monroe County Board of Review.

When this appeals process is completed, the Illinois Department of Revenue establishes a tentative and then a final multiplier, which is a factor applied to taxes to balance rates across adjoining counties.

After the state finishes those steps, the assessments move to the office of Monroe County Clerk Jonathan McLean, where tax rates for individual tax districts are determined.

Once tax bills are calculated, they are printed and mailed by the treasurer’s office.

The postage increase would also affect costs for the assessor’s office if assessment notices are not mailed before July 14.

Last year’s assessments were announced to be released by early May though, as mentioned, they were ultimately released in June.

At that time last year, Wuertz said the delay was due to “personal reasons.”

This was the most significant delay the assessor’s office had seen since 2018.

The first significant delay in Monroe County assessments in the past decade came in 2016 when they were published in early May.

Assessments in 2017 were published in April, but were then pushed back in 2018 to late June.

Assessment publication then stayed between late February and early March from 2019 to 2021 before falling to mid-April in 2022.

This year’s Monroe County assessments also stand in contrast to those in neighboring Randolph and St. Clair counties.

In Randolph County, Supervisor of Assessments Christopher Koester said his office typically gets assessments out in the March-April time frame.

In St. Clair County, an individual within the treasurer’s office said she anticipates sending out tax bills sometime in the next month.

While last year’s holiday property tax bills might have proven troublesome for some local residents, they were also a concern for at least one local taxing body.

Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Brian Charron said the school district has been able to deal with any late receipt of tax funds on most occasions by simply shifting funds internally in order to manage the budget.

Charron recalled at least one year during his tenure in which the district had to borrow money from a local bank in order to get through the year, and while the interest rates were more manageable then, the higher interest rates now could result in a substantial cost to taxpayers should the district be required to borrow.

“As long as they’re not later than they were last year, we should be able to accomplish that again with internal transfers of funds,” Charron said. “We did get nervous last year, and we’re watching our fund balances at every payroll.”

Charron also said that the school district, with some properties in St. Clair County, tends to receive its tax revenue from that around July.