Where Does Property Tax Money Go? This Year, 68.6% Goes To Schools

Where Does Property Tax Money Go? This Year, 68.6% Goes To Schools

/ April 30, 2018 / Comments Off on Where Does Property Tax Money Go? This Year, 68.6% Goes To Schools / Business, Communities, Government, Kane County Treasurer's Office, Local Economy, Property Values, Real Estate, Schools, Taxpayers
  • Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a series of articles on Kane County Connects regarding the 2017 property tax bill payable in 2018. Tax bills are available on the Kane County Treasurer’s Office website starting today (April 30, 2018) and will be sent to Kane County residents starting May 4, 2018. The next article will look at a new website that gives you all kinds of property tax information and lets you pay bills online!

Two questions we ask rhetorically each April are, “Where Does Property Tax Money Come From?” and “Where Does Property Tax Money Go?”

Both questions are answered annually in the Kane County Treasurer’s Office news release announcing when tax bills are in the mail.

The due dates for paying property taxes this year are June 4 and Sept. 4.

Where Property Tax Money Comes From

Most property taxes are paid by you, John or Jane Q. Homeowner.

This year, residential taxpayers are paying an even larger slice of the pie than a year ago. For the 2016 property taxes paid in 2017, residential property owners paid 75 percent of the $1.28 billion total. This year, residential property owners will pay 75.4 percent of the nearly $1.3 billion that will be collected.

So, if homeowners are paying more, who’s paying less?

Year over year, the slice of the pie paid by industrial and commercial property owners is shrinking, just a tiny bit.

For comparison, commercial property owners paid 14.2 percent of the total last year and will be 13.9 percent this year. Industrial property owners paid 8.8 percent last year and will pay 8.7 percent this year.

The percentage of commercial property taxes have been shrinking consistently for several years now — from 14.6 percent in 2014 (payable 2015) to 14.4 percent in 2015 (payable 2016) to 14.2 percent in 2016 (payable 2017) to 13.9 percent in 2017 (payable in 2018).

Where Property Tax Money Goes

While schools get the giant-economy-sized slice of the property-tax revenue pie, the percentage ticked down a notch this year.

Schools got 68.7 percent of the money last year but will be 68.6 percent this year.

Keep in mind that the percentage total you pay will vary, depending on your school district and the other taxing bodies in which you live.

Overall, here are the year-over-year, slice-of-the-pie comparisons:

  • Cities — UP (10.4 percent last year, 10.6 percent this year)
  • Forest Preserve/Parks — DOWN (6.2 percent last year, 5.7 percent this year)
  • Kane County — UNCHANGED (4.3 percent last year, 4.3 percent this year)
  • Libraries — UP (3.2 percent last year, 3.3 percent this year)
  • Fire Districts — UP (3.0 percent last year, 3.1 percent this year)
  • Townships — UNCHANGED (2.6 percent last year, 2.6 percent this year)

Read the Series

Click this link to see last year’s story and pie-chart comparisons.

Read More

For More Information

  • For questions about exemptions or appeals, call the Kane County Supervisor of Assessments Office at 630-208-3818 or visit KaneCountyAssessments.org.
  • For questions about how tax rates are developed, call the Kane County Clerk’s Office at 630-232-5964 or visit KaneCountyClerk.org.
  • For questions about tax bills or payments, call the Kane County Treasurer’s Office at 630-232-3565 or visit KaneCountyTreasurer.org.

 

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