Tax appeals board behind schedule

OREGON – The newly appointed Ogle County Board of Review will begin annual property tax appeal hearings next week – several weeks behind schedule.

Supervisor of Assessments Jim Harrison said Monday that hearings on the less complicated appeals are set for Feb. 9 and Feb. 16.

Hearings for the industrial properties in Dement Township are scheduled for Feb. 22, 23, and 24.

Harrison said the resignations of veteran BOR members Jerry Griffin of Forreston and Paul Lower of Rochelle delayed the start of the hearings.

“We’re about a month behind. Usually the hearings are all done by the end of January,” he said. “But I don’t think it will delay the tax bills.”

The three-member board usually meets in January to hear tax appeals. The decision on contested assessments must be made early in the year in order for real estate tax bills to be calculated and mailed on time.

Real estate taxes are due in two equal installments, the first due in early June and the second in early September.

Griffin and Lower resigned Jan. 5 after pay for members was reduced from $4,500 to $2,000.

The Ogle County Board replaced the two on Jan. 17 with Robert Godman of Byron and Thomas P. Lewandowski of Oregon.

Sheryl Hopkins of Polo and Mitch Montgomery of Rochelle were appointed to the newly created alternate posts.

Once the hearings begin, the BOR will consider more than 160 tax appeals filed last fall.

Those appeals include 40 industrial properties, the assessments of which were increased by $46 million last fall for taxes payable in 2012.

The properties are in Dement Township in the southeast corner of the county.

Because no one ran for Dement Township assessor in April 2011, township officials hired Mount Morris Township Assessor Paul Peterson, who also is a real estate appraiser.

Peterson said he raised the assessments because they were far too low.

Some taxing bodies affected by the change have consulted experts in an effort to uphold the new property values and gain much-needed tax revenues – which would total more than $4 million, Harrison said.