| The Henry County Assessment Office plays an important role
in your local government.
The office is responsible for determining the market value of
properties in the county for
the purpose of taxation. There are approximately 28,000 parcels
in Henry County.
The office must maintain detailed information about the
physical characteristics of all of
the buildings in the county. Some examples of the information
needed are square footage,
age, condition, number of bathrooms. Detailed maps are also kept
in the assessment office. The maps show size, shape and location of the parcels. The maps
are a useful tool in the
valuation process.
The office must also maintain a complete listing of all of
the property owner's and their
addresses and make changes to the listing whenever a deed is
recorded in the
County Recorder's Office.
The real estate transfer declarations that are recorded in the
County Recorder's Office are the primary source of sales data,
which is crucial in
determining the market value of properties.
Property tax exemptions are also
granted and maintained within the assessment office.
There are public exemptions, which exempts certain parcels from
paying any tax. Some
examples of these are properties owned by school districts,
townships, county and
churches. There are also exemptions granted to the residential
property owner, which
reduces the amount of tax they pay. These are
homeowner's,
homestead,
Sr. Freeze, and homestead
improvement.
The Chief County Assessment Officer (CCAO) also must
establish guidelines for the township assessor to follow
in each assessment district. There are 17 assessment districts
in Henry County. Your township assessor is elected to office
every 4 years. They also are responsible for dermining the
market value of properties. Upon completion of their work,
the books are handed over to the CCAO. The CCAO has authority to
make changes to
individual properties and must equalize the townships within the
county.
The equalization factor is the township factor that is
reported on your assessment notice
as well as annually in the newspaper. Equalization is the
process of adjusting entire
townships to ensure that all townships are assessed as 33.33% of
market value as
required by law.
The CCAO sends an abstract of all figures to the
Illinois Department of
Revenue (IDOR).
They perform the same equalization process to ensure that the
entire county is assessed at
33.33% of market value. Some taxing districts cross over county
lines or overlap.
Therefore, the equalization process is necessary so those
taxpayers in both counties are
paying their fair share into the overlapping taxing districts.
If upon review by the IDOR
the county is not as 33.33% of market value, the IDOR will apply
a countywide multiplier
similar to the township factor. |