LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
Property owners in Paris Township are opening their mail to find assessment notices showing significant increases of 60, 70 or even 80 percent — and the Edgar County Assessment Office wants residents to understand why.
This year’s quadrennial reassessment covered Paris Township, which accounts for more than a third of Edgar County’s equalized assessed value, according to Chief County Assessment Officer Deena Hasler. She explained at a recent County Board Meeting that the dramatic increases are the result of the county catching up with a rapidly rising real estate market, not a decision made arbitrarily by her office.
“We’ve been too low for many years, so we’re just trying to catch up with what the market’s doing,” Hasler said. “The market is shooting up faster than the reassessments are happening … We’ve had everything from being accused of falsifying records, cheating and lying, we’ve had a property line disputes … we’ve even had people complaining about the ink we use on our notices.”
Under Illinois law, every property must be valued every four years. Edgar County divides itself into four sections, reassessing one quarter of the county annually so that every property is reviewed on a rotating basis. Paris Township was the section selected for 2025.
While sitting down with a Prairie Press reporter last week, Hasler explained that each time a property sells, a deed and accompanying document record the sale price and the prior assessed value. Assessors track those sales throughout the year to determine whether assessments are at one-third of market value — the standard required by state law.
“The law says that we’re to bring a property to the current market value,” Hasler said. “It’s not even that you can — you kind of have to … If we don’t do something, the state will, but they’ll do it across the county, whereas we can do it more individually by Township and get it more refined.”
According to Hasler, assessors evaluate properties by comparing similar homes, examining exterior features and making estimates about interior characteristics such as the number of bathrooms, finished basements and overall construction type. Because assessors generally work from outside the home, Hasler was quick to encourage property owners to review their property record cards and notify the office of any inaccuracies.
“We have to estimate, because we’re not inside,” she said. “That’s why we ask people to review everything and let us know ‘Hey, I don’t have three bathrooms, I only have one and a half or my basement isn’t finished.’”
Hasler was also careful to separate assessed value from property taxes, noting that the assessment office does not set tax rates. She compared the process to dividing a pie — a higher-valued property gets a larger slice, but the total cost of the pie depends on what taxing bodies request.
“All we’re doing is dividing that pie of property into pieces that are the right size for the type of home you have,” she said. “What is that pie going to cost them? We don’t know.”
Hasler added that if the total taxable base increases, tax rates may actually decrease.
“My own personal view is that taxes will not go up near as much as people are anticipating,” she said, while cautioning that she could not predict the outcome with certainty.
Residents may notice two separate adjustments on their property records: a local township factor and a state-issued multiplier. The local factor is calculated by the county based on a full year of sales data and is incorporated directly into a property’s assessed value going forward.
The state multiplier, currently a tentative 0.9661, reflecting that some assessments ran 3.392 percent above the target, is a one-year-only adjustment that will appear on tax bills but is not reflected in assessment records.
“It’s only for their tax bill that one year,” Hasler said. “After next year, their assessment still stays where it always was.”
Hasler also wanted to remind residents that several exemptions can reduce taxable value. Any homeowner who lives in their property qualifies for the general homestead exemption. Additional exemptions are available for residents 65 and older, low-income seniors, disabled individuals, disabled veterans and returning veterans. A full list is available on the county’s website.
Property owners who make qualifying improvements — such as adding a garage — may also apply for a Homestead Improvement Exemption, which exempts that improvement from taxation for four years. Hasler said the office tries to send reminder notices before the exemption expires so owners aren’t caught off guard by an increase in their tax bill.
“It’s designed to help them catch up on payments and get that structure paid for,” Hasler explained.
Residents who disagree with their 2025 assessment have until May 4 to file an appeal, either in person at the assessment office or postmarked by that date. Appeal forms are also available on the county website, though they cannot be submitted online.
The office will assist residents in copying Property Record Cards of comparable properties to support their appeal. After filing, the Board of Review will issue a tentative decision. If a property owner remains unsatisfied, they may request a face-to-face meeting with the board, and if still unresolved, may escalate to the state Property Tax Appeal Board.
“Don’t be afraid to talk to us,” Hasler said. “It’s just business. It’s not personal. We don’t get mad or think anything of a person who files an appeal — that’s part of our job, and we’re just helping them out.”
She also emphasized that the office has no discretion in setting assessments to arbitrary levels. If assessors failed to bring properties to market value, the state would issue a county-wide multiplier affecting all property owners regardless of township.
Per Hasler, her office has already met with at least one neighborhood group that arrived prepared to protest en masse. After staff explained how assessments are calculated and how limited their discretion actually is, not a single attendee took an appeal form on the way out.
“They were surprised at how much our hands were tied,” she said. “I guaranteed them — if I said I don’t like it, you don’t like it — but we are doing everything that we legally are supposed to do.”
The office plans to hold an educational session with newly elected and returning county board members so they can better address constituent questions and she noted that the office is open to meeting with other community groups as well.
Residents with questions about their assessments, exemptions or the appeal process are encouraged to contact the Edgar County Assessment Office directly, where staff members are available to walk property owners through appeal forms and help identify comparable properties.
“Anything that comes from our office is time sensitive,” Hasler said. “If it comes from our office, we recommend they react to it quickly, call and ask questions. That’s what we’re here for.”