Property tax assessments for Monroe County residents are available in the Feb. 12 issue of the Republic-Times newspaper.

Monroe County Supervisor of Assessments Dawn Goff reported that 2024 assessments are up about 6 percent overall.

The number of taxable parcels once again increased and is nearing the 20,000 mark.

Goff told the Republic-Times that 19,972 parcels were assessed for 2024 tax purposes. In 2020, the total number of assessed properties was approximately 19,500.

Citizens now have 30 days to lodge formal complaints with the Board of Review about their property assessments.

Once 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 that, 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.

For the current assessment list, owners of farmland will need to add a little extra to the printed total.

The assessments printed in this issue of the Republic-Times do not reflect the latest 10 percent increase due to an error in calculation which was discovered after the list had already been printed.

According to Goff, farmland assessments will “increase by 10 percent of the preceding year’s median cropped soil productivity index as certified by the Illinois Department of Revenue with data provided by the Farmland Assessment Technical Advisory Board.”

Goff said the result is that farmland parcels will carry an additional “$46.87 per acre increase for each soil productivity index.” 

The 10 percent increase is the result of a 2013 amendment to the Farmland Assessment Law.

The amendment essentially changed the way farmland is assessed to provide a value from a farming standpoint rather than a simple fair market value.

Under the 1977 Farm Assessment Law, a gap in assessed valuation began based on productivity potential.

The amendment also keeps farmers and taxing bodies from being overly affected by changes in assessments through implementation of a 10 percent minimum and maximum annual change. 

With the limits in place, farmland owners would not see a huge tax hikes in a single year if assessed valuation was high. Conversely, a taxing body would not lose an extraordinary amount of revenue if value of farmland decreased.

The certified values for 2024, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue, translate to an equalized assessed value of $927.41 ($349.78 certified value) per acre of land with a soil productivity index of  90. An acre of land with an index of 120 would have an EAV of $1,512.19 (certified value 622.49).

The 10 percent increase is based on the 2023 certified value of median productivity index of 111, which was $468.70.

Monroe County property assessments being published in February is a change from recent years; they ran in June the previous two years. 

This is Goff’s first round of assessments, as she took over following the retirement of longtime assessor Carl Wuertz.

For more information on 2024 assessments, contact the assessor’s office at 618-939-8681, ext. 211, or email assessor@monroecountyil.gov.

Assessments are also available for subscribers of the Republic-Times e-Edition.