Correction to Assessed Value Information

I have made a huge error thinking two pieces of information were the same data. I have deleted my earlier post so that it does not further confuse people with my error. In short, I posted that the Assessed Value for Decatur had risen dramatically, when it has not.

The Assessed Value of all property in Decatur outside of the TIF district was reported to me as the 'Gross Assessed Value' by the County Assessor. The DLGF uses a 'Certified Assessed Value', which is the gross AV minus the value of all deductions for things like the homestead deduction and mortgage deduction. The gross AV is $1.6 billion and the certified AV is $1.1 billion for the property taxes to be collected in 2010. The certified AV is used to calculate the tax rate.

Our certified AV went up by roughly $80 million between last year's tax bills and this year's. Currently the DLGF is authorizing the MSD Decatur Township School District to raise nearly $19 million in property taxes and transfer just over $2 million from a 'levy excess fund' to the District's transportation fund. The tax caps will not let the District collect all of that $19 million. But, at this point we can't be sure what the difference will be.

The exact effect of the property tax caps will be calculated within the next couple of weeks as each property tax bill for each property is calculated.

Again, I am so sorry to have gotten folks' hopes up with my earlier post. Please accept my apologies and I'll work diligently to be error free in the future.