Topping the relatively early publication date of Feb. 12, 2025, for the 2024 property tax assessment list, Monroe County Supervisor of Assessments Dawn Goff and her team have this year’s list included in this week’s issue of the Republic-Times.

Goff has readied her department’s assessment of  2025 county property values for release in January during her second round as assessor, her first full-time cycle after taking over for previous supervisor of assessments Carl Wuertz upon his retirement in late 2024.

Prior to last year’s Feb. 12 publication, the last time the assessment list was available prior to March was in 2020, with that list being published in the Feb. 26 issue. 

Prior to Goff taking office, assessment notices had not been made available until the spring season, with publication dates in June, April and March for 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Those later dates translated into late due dates for overall property tax bills, with November and December deadlines for much of the first half of the current decade. 

With the county’s fiscal year beginning annually on Dec. 1, the late due dates led to odd budget totals due to extra payments posted in the beginning of the year and incomplete collection numbers reflected in the next year’s budget.

Property tax due dates are now trending away from the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons as a result of the more timely publication dates.

On Tuesday, Monroe County Treasurer Kevin Koenigstein shared expected due dates for 2025 property taxes payable in 2026 as Sept. 18 and Nov. 6.

“Hopefully, tax bills will be mailed sometime in July,” Koenigstein said.

Those dates depend on a number of factors.

The 30-day window for property owners to appeal any new assessed valuation sets up the Monroe County Board of Review to consider those appeals beginning in March. 

With that process expected to be completed by mid-April, the Illinois Department of Revenue will conduct a review of Monroe County assessments and release a tentative multiplication factor if needed.

Last year’s final multiplier was just over 5.5 percent.

If the state is finished with its part in the cycle by the end of May as Koenigstein predicts, Monroe County Clerk Jonathan McLean and his office will then establish tax rates and totals due for each taxable property.

Once the calculations are complete, the tax bills are sent to Koenigstein’s department to be printed and mailed.

Koenigstein also provided an overview of this year’s assessment trends, noting an increase in equalized assessed valuation of nearly 9 percent compared to the 2024 list. 

Total property equalized assessed valuation for all taxable parcels in the county increased by a little more than $150 million, an increase of about 11.5 percent from last year.

The total EAV for 2025 is just under $1.65 billion, although the total taxable EAV is just shy of $1.5 billion after all exemptions are deducted. 

While assessments are up nearly 9 percent, Koenigstein pointed out the property value increase does not necessarily translate to a property tax bill 9 percent higher than the prior year. 

Any increase in individual tax bills is based on the approved budgets of all applicable taxing bodies for a certain property, the change in valuation for other properties with shared tax obligations and the section of the county which had been re-assessed during the latest cycle.

Goff spoke with the Republic-Times on Tuesday, reporting that properties in Hecker and the unincorporated areas in the eastern section of Monroe County were re-assessed in the most recent cycle. 

Columbia and the northern part of the county are next in line for updated assessments.

Shortly after taking office, Goff and her team slightly modified the re-assessment schedule, pointing to the fact that assessments for Monroe County’s most populated cities, Waterloo and Columbia, underwent re-assessment in consecutive years, leading to an uneven workload during the four-year cycle.

When asked about current assessment trends locally, Goff explained “the market is still high,” referring to low inventory and high demand for residential properties in Monroe County.

Goff also clarified how her office assesses residences higher in the valuation spectrum.

With home sales of $500,000 or more becoming more common, and recent real estate reported in the $800,000 range for a single-family home, Goff explained the state issues its own guidelines for assessments in a given year. 

While the sale of comparable homes in an area are part of the assessment formula, Goff said the practice of “sale chasing” is illegal. 

For instance, a home assessed at $500,000 which is sold for $750,0000 “can’t be bumped” to its latest sale price, Goff said. 

She added the state publishes an annual cost catalogue that provides a baseline for potential assessed values. That publication in addition to a number of other factors, have to “equal out” to norms calculated at the state level.

“We’re just trying to get (assessments) to reflect the market value,” Goff concluded. 

If a county’s total assessed value is lower than the state expects, an equalization factor – or multiplier – is then issued to maintain consistency with surrounding counties in order to maintain a consistent EAV of about 33.3 percent of a given property’s market value. 

The complete list of taxable Monroe County properties assessed in 2025 – reflecting one-third of a property’s fair market value  – is available in this week’s issue of the Republic-Times.