Kane County taxpayers have received more than $92 million in tax relief over the past eight years due to the combined efforts of the Kane County Board and Forest Preserve District of Kane County, according to data posted on the Kane County Clerk’s Office website and put into chart form by the Kane County Supervisor of Assessment’s Office.

The charts also indicate that Kane County property owners have seen $55.3 million in property tax relief during the period of 2012 through 2019, including a 21.5% savings in 2019 alone, from the Kane County Board efforts separate from the Forest Preserve District of Kane County.

The property tax savings are based on the amounts board members and Forest Preserve District commissioners could have levied had they sought the maximum allowed under tax-cap legislation.

Small Portion of the Pie

The property taxes levied by Kane County are, of course, a small portion of a resident’s or business’s total property tax bill. The majority of those taxes go to public schools, as indicated in the pie chart above.

The Kane County portion of your property tax bill accounts for about 4.2% of your total property tax bill, while the Forest Preserve District portion accounts for about 1.7% of the total bill, Kane County Supervisor of Assessments Mark Armstrong said.

As indicated in the chart, Kane County’s tax levy has been relatively flat during the period of 2012 through 2019, staying at $53.9 million for five years — from 2012 to 2016 — and increasing only by the value of new growth over the next three years.

The Kane County levy went to $54.4 million in 2017, then $55.0 million in 2018, then $55.5 million in 2019.

By comparison, the County Board’s property tax levy increased by 50% during the period from 2004 to 2011. The county collected $36.2 million in 2004 and $54.3 million in 2011.

The Forest Preserve District’s levy actually has gone down during the past four years, primarily due to the retirement of bonds.

The Forest Preserve District’s total levy went from a high of $89.9 million in 2016 to $78.6 million in 2019.