In an announcement that will affect homeowners and taxpayers across Kankakee County, the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) has set the property assessment equalization factor, also known as the "multiplier," at a steady 1.0000 for the upcoming tax year. David Harris, director of IDOR, confirmed the figure is aimed at ensuring uniform property assessments across the county, thereby avoiding disparities in tax liabilities for comparable properties.
These adjustments help calibrate the tax burden, which might otherwise swing wildly if the values of properties in different counties were assessed without regard to balance. According to IDOR's system, properties should be gauged at a third of their market value, a standard that's been upheld since the law's inception in 1975. This standard puts farm properties, assessed differently, with farm homesites and dwellings coming under the umbrella of the usual assessing and equalization practices.
Sales data from properties in 2020 through 2022 have led to assessments in Kankakee County clocking in at 33.1%, slightly above the ideal one-third market value threshold. As reported by Illinois.gov, this results in a multiplier of 1.0000, identical to last year's figure, which signifies that the county's assessments are spot-on with the state's legal requirements.
Kankakee County's finalized assessment equalization factor comes after a public hearing that considered a tentative factor also set at 1.0000, announced on November 1 last year. The yearly process involves reviewing property sale prices over a rolling three-year period against the county assessor's valuation to achieve the goal of taxation fairness across Illinois' landscape of overlapping taxing districts, like school and fire districts.
