The Illinois General Assembly adjourned their spring session in the early morning hours of June 1, 2025. In light of pessimistic projections on future revenue collections and dwindling federal support, this session was punctuated by many issues that watchers had deemed would be of great future importance – pensions, transit funding, and renewable energy being the big non-budgetary discussion points. Property tax assessment and local government issues also proved to be hot topics.

The Chief County Assessment Officers Association has leveraged our relationships and our reputation to ensure that we had a seat at the table during these discussions. Our main administrative agenda items – adjusting the MTAD consolidation threshold to 3,000 and modernizing the Developer Rate statute to put common-sense limits on qualifying parcels – were given full vetting from both chambers and were eligible for final consideration as the session drew to a close; unfortunately, these fell victim to the “tyranny of the calendar” and were not able to cross the finish line before the clock literally struck midnight. All of this said, however, we have tremendous buy-in and support from both our advocates in the Legislature and our affiliates, and are confident that, when additional property tax issues not related to our initiatives are finally ironed out, our initiatives will get their due.

Another item on our agenda that we’ve been working on also fell victim to circumstances outside of our control. As most of you are aware, we have been working for the last 18 months to enact a statute for a statewide valuation methodology for battery energy storage (BESS) facilities. Our team has worked well with our colleagues in the counties as well as the energy industry itself, and we were able to arrive at an agreed upon rate and valuation methodology that all sides are celebrating; however, there are broader issues that remain unresolved and are still being negotiated before an omnibus energy bill will be considered. Again, however, thanks to the work of our team, we know that our component maintains universal support and have every assurance that it will be part of any ongoing discussion.

One assessment item that did pass was a change to the preferential assessment for affordable housing (35 ILCS 200/15-178) in the revenue omnibus. The biggest change was that the expiration of the program was pushed out to 2034; however, other changes were made related to public notice of the program, availability of forms, and effective date of program opt-outs. This program is very complex, so as always reach out if you have further questions or want additional information.

Key bills under consideration at the deadline were:

SB 2156 - Property Tax Omnibus (House Version - did not get Senate vote)

HB 3790 - Property Tax - Various (Senate Version - did not get House vote)   

HB 2755 - Revenue Omnibus (Passed both chambers; awaiting Governor's action) 

As far as the future goes, the General Assembly will, at a minimum, be back in October for its annual veto session. When that time comes we will see what, if any, changes they might be considering. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact myself, anyone on our legislative team, or your own affiliate group and we will be happy to assist you.

 

Timothy A. Jorczak is the Chief County Assessment Officer for McLean County. Prior to his current position, he served as the Senior Commercial Appraiser for the City of Bloomington Township. Previously, Tim performed commercial valuations as Director of Commercial Operations in the Porter County (Indiana) Assessor’s Office and worked for the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance on policy issues related to property taxation. He holds a bachelor of arts (BA) degree from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and a master of business administration (MBA) degree from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University in Indianapolis.