Public meeting on proposed certified crop land assessed values set for July 13
There will be a public meeting on the proposed certified crop land assessed values for the 2023 assessment year at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, July 13, in the Livingston County Historic Courthouse Assessment Office meeting room located on the 1st floor. The purpose of the meeting is to inform the public of the changes that will be occurring in 2023 based on the recent change in the law on farmland assessments.
The Farmland Assessment Law changed for the 2015 assessment year, as amended by Public Act 98-0109. 35 ILCS 200-10-115 now limits the annual change in farmland assessments to 10% from the preceding year’s median soil productivity index certified assessed value with an additional $5.00 per acre reduction for the 2015 assessment year only. The median productivity index for the State of Illinois is 111. As a result, farmland assessed values, on a per parcel basis, can change by more than 10%, with soils that have lower productivity indexes than the median increasing more than 10% and those with higher productivity indexes than the median increasing by less than 10%. The goal for the change in law is to close the gap between the poorer soils and the better soils. For 2015 there was a 22:1 ratio between the highest and lowest PI. For 2023, the gap will be reduced to 3.2:1. The ultimate goal is to get that ratio to 2:1 by the year 2029.
For the 2023 assessment year, the Farmland Technical Advisory Committee has adjusted the certified values to limit the change to 10% from the preceding year’s median soil productivity index certified assessed value. The median soil productivity index is 111, which results in an increase in the assessed value for each productivity index of $42.61/acre from the 2022 assessment.
The effect of this law is to increase those productivity indexes below 111 at a faster rate than those above 111 to create a more narrow range of certified crop land assessed values. The 10% limit in the past has distorted the ratio in assessed values over the range of productivity indexes.
The meeting is open to the public.
Shelly L Renken, chairman, Livingston County Farmland Assessment Review Committee
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Public meeting on proposed certified crop land assessed values set
