The 2017 Monroe County property assessments are out, starting the process for tax bills. 

A partial assessment list appears in this week’s issue of the Republic-Times. Due to an error at the printer, only pages 9-20 are included in the June 27 issue. Pages 1-8 will be included in the July 4 issue.

Monroe County Assessor Carl Wuertz said 2017 assessments are up 3 percent on average from 2016. 

“Waterloo is up about 3 percent; Columbia is up slightly less than that,” Wuertz said.

The 2016 assessments, which were issued in April 2017, represented a slight increase on average.

The assessor’s office printed 19,399 total assessment notices this year. 

Assessments are based on median property sales recorded in Monroe County over a three-year period.

There will now be a 30-day period for citizens to lodge formal complaints with the Board of Review about their tax assessments. 

To contact the assessor’s office, call 939-8681, ext. 211.

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

Once that is completed, the assessments then move to the office of Monroe County Clerk Dennis Knobloch, where tax rates for individual tax districts are determined.

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

Earlier this month, Monroe County Treasurer Kevin Koenigstein said his office will have a hard time getting tax bills out before October, with first installments due in mid-November and the second due just before Christmas.