West Central Reporter

Morgan County has received a final property assessment equalization factor of 0.9829, announced by David Harris, the director of the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR). This factor, known as the "multiplier," ensures uniform property assessments across counties, which is crucial given that some of Illinois's 6,600 local taxing districts, including school and fire protection districts, span multiple counties. Without this standardization, there would be significant disparities among taxpayers with similar properties.

According to a law enacted in 1975, Illinois property must be assessed at one-third of its market value, with farm property being an exception. While farm homesites and dwellings follow regular procedures, farmland assessments are based on one-third of agricultural economic value and do not apply under the state equalization factor. Morgan County's current assessments sit at 33.91% of market value, derived from property sales data spanning 2021 through 2023. The newly assigned equalization factor applies to taxes due in 2025 for the 2024 tax year, with last year's factor being 1.0000.

The final factor comes after a public hearing on a tentative factor of 0.9678, issued on February 27, 2025. Annually, the equalization factor for each county is determined by comparing individual property sales prices over the previous three years to their assessed values set by the county assessor. If assessments match one-third of market value, the factor is one. Factors below one indicate assessments exceed one-third of market value, while factors above one suggest the opposite.

Changes in the equalization factor do not directly affect overall property tax bills. Tax bills depend on local taxing bodies and their annual financial requests. Should these requests not exceed previous year amounts, property taxes remain unchanged despite assessment increases. The assessed value assigns each taxpayer a proportional tax share, unaffected by the multiplier.