Rich Miller -- ahead of his time with this blog
First, this is a great idea and a great opportunity to learn about some of the other things going on around the state -- lke the Asian carp story I just read about. I can't speak for anybody else, but it gives me great comfort entering the holiday season to know that Sen. Jacobs is leading the brave fight against carp - described in some circles as terrorists with fins.
That reminds me of a joke I heard recently.
What's the difference between a carp and an elected official in Illinois?
Well, one is a blood-sucking parasite that wallows in the mud and preys on the weak ... and the other one is a fish.
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In the coming weeks I'll be reporting on a couple of stories that will be of interest statewide.
Four employees of the Franklin-Williamson Regional Office of Education, including superintendent Barry Kohl, were arrested last year on a 62-count indictment that includes forgery, perjury and theft. This case has slugged through the court system and is now scheduled for a final pre-trial hearing on Nov. 30. After countless hearings held by conference call the four defendants will finally be in a courtroom this coming Wednesday, so things should start getting interesting pretty quicky. On top of the problems with the Attorney General, Kohl also received another bad audit only last month -- problems that surfaced about expenditures AFTER he was arrested.
The really unique thing about this story is that Kohl has announced that he will run for re-election in the March primary. The last three elections Kohl has ran unopposed but Matt Donkin, a principal at West Frankfort High School has announced he will be a candidate so Kohl will face a challenge in the Democratic primary in March. It goes without saying that the Dems in Franklin and Williamson are sweating bullets right now about what to do with Kohl, who has been a leading figure in the Democrat Party for more than two decades. To say that some Dems are trying to distance themselves from Kohl would be an understatement.
It's a story that will get more interesting as the court process continues right alongside the election campaign.
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Another story that is developing in Southern Illinois is a move by Franklin County officials to get legislation passed during the next session to change the current system of assessing taxes.
Currently, township assessors handle the job, but the problem is this group is not doing a very good job. In fact, and to be totally honest, some township assessors are doing nothing, period. This was highlighted when the Franklin County Board hired an independent assessor who, within a six-week span found $25 million of property that had never been added to the tax rolls. That list included 51 businesses! How do you miss 51 businesses in a county the size of Franklin? Some assessors turned in zero changes or additions during an entire tax year.
In a nutshell, the legislation that will be proposed will allow any county board -- in a county with a population less than 80,000 -- the option to hire outside assessors and do away with township assessors. The key word is 'option' meaning that if counties are happy with the current process no change is mandatory.
I have heard rumblings, and maybe somebody on this site knows for sure, that Franklin County is not the only county that has big problems with township tax assessors.
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Once again, thanks for the invitation, Rich, I see nothing but success for this site.
-- posted by Jim Muir -- 'From Where I Blog'
5 comments:
Thanks, Jim.
One mild suggestion. Make sure to put a space between grafs. Much easier to read that way.
"This was highlighted when the Franklin County Board hired an independent assessor who, within a six-week span found $25 million of property that had never been added to the tax rolls. That list included 51 businesses! How do you miss 51 businesses in a county the size of Franklin? Some assessors turned in zero changes or additions during an entire tax year."
Ok, first off, it's not just the fault of the township assessors. I'm fairly familiar with the entire Franklin County situation, and there's more than enough blame to go around.
For example, the previous County Assessor was a complete & total waste. The lady who is there currently is better, but still nothing to brag about (a lightweight).
Secondly, Franklin County has done an absolutely superb job of spending money poorly in the entire local tax area. They went out about 10 years or so ago & spent what turned out to be around $750k on a Geographic Information System, and it was just a total cluster****. They needed to spend the money elsewhere, and didn't.
They have had all sorts of inside problems in administering their local real estate taxes over the years, and they've spent a whole bunch of money doing it. It's been really ugly overall.
On the missed new property (which btw, they really need because Franklin is a tax cap county, and that new property is an adjustment to the tax cap), they (County and all the towns/cities) really need to use building permits and certificates of completion. But they don't want to do that - it might make things more organized, and wouldn't cost a small fortune, and then when the problems went away, well, nobody to blame.
Ask yourself a question: Let's say that the "Some assessors turned in zero changes or additions during an entire tax year" statement is correct - well, then exactly what was (a) The County Assessor & staff, and (b) The County Board of Review doing?
Did they even look at the assessment roll that was turned in? If the township assessors don't do their job (which, btw, does happen in more than a few places) - then it's up to the County folks to step in and get it done. It's just that most places don't try and turn it into a nine ring media circus.
Do other Counties have problems with the performance of township assessors? - YES. Do they handle it better than Franklin County has? - ABSOLUTELY.
Franklin County needs to clean up their act (internal) first before they go out looking to talk smack about the Township Assessors (they've got way too much baggage to be a good place to fight the battle over Township Assessors).
Jim,
Glad to see you on this site! I would like to suggest an improvement to your blog site, allow for anonymous posting such as this site. You will get many more comments, some will be bogus but as Rich can verify you will get some really good inside stuff, especially from state employees who see Blago's work first hand. Keep up the good work Jim!
Ok, some more information that you need to be aware of regarding Franklin County & those assessments:
First off, there's a LOT of resistance within the County (some Board members, some other elected county officials, most, if not all of the County Board of Review, and most, if not all of the township assessors) who really didn't appreciate the County Assessor (Supervisor of Assessments, actually) pushing this issue to the front burner.
In fact, I'd still be interested to know what ever happened to the first set of records that mysteriously removed themselves (outside of normal working hours, of course) from the County Assessor's desk when she was out of town. Amazing how those records can self-levitate & then just disappear, but somehow those proposed numbers (assessments) from those same records just happen to get to a number of the specific property owners of the "omitted" properties.
I didn't make myself clear enough in my first post - this current Franklin County Assessor is trying to do a good job, but she is certainly overmatched by what she's facing. To date, she's had enough support on the County Board to survive, but before long, it's going to get a lot tougher.
Few more pieces of information here:
First, the Feds are digging around (I'm behind the curve on this one, just found out about that part of it) - and it's apparently expanded into the different Township governments, along with Franklin County.
Apparently (according to the story I got told), an Assistant US Attorney lives in Franklin County and has taken a personal interest in getting to the bottom of the mess, and so there's a little bit more interest by the Feds in getting this mess cleaned up.
Also, if the story is correct (and I'm not at all sure about this), there's a well-paid Franklin County employee (think: Judicial/Public Safety area of the County) who owns one of the properties that was "missed".
Also, there's one real player who is getting a really hard look, and that's a current elected official who was an assessment official in a previous lifetime. If he didn't know, it's because he didn't want to know.
Lastly, as a Hint: Talk to the different tax districts (school districts, fire districts, etc.), and they'll tell you that they've had issues over this type of stuff for a very long time. But they could never get any straight answers from different County offices, and now there's a LOT of people who have been doing their jobs who are realizing that they've been taken for a ride on the prior years property tax extensions because of all the missed assessments on new construction.
Realize, those tax districts may be completely screwed over, because while "New Construction" assessed values are treated as an "add-on" (increase adjustment) for property tax limitation (tax caps), if the new construction value is picked up as "omitted", it's not treated as an "add-on" (increase adjustment for tax caps for the specific tax district.
Fair? - Well, No, but that's the rules on tax cap. I don't know how many of those tax districts have realized that yet, but they are going to be seriously unhappy when they find out.
And if the property owners notified the assessment officials in accordance with the provisions of 35 ILCS 9-270, then they are out from under charges for taxes and back interest for previous years.
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