The Collinsville Unit 10 School Board voted at its most recent meeting to intervene in tax assessment cases for two local businesses that could reduce their combined assessed value by as much as $700,000.

Collinsville School Board / Photo by Roger Starkey

General Chemical LLC, of Fairmont City, has appealed a decision by the St. Clair County Board of Review to the Illinois Property Tax Appeals Board. General Chemical is seeking to have the 2011 assessed value of its property at 2500 Kingshighway reduced from $702,000 to $247,000. Illinois law requires the assessed value of non-farm property equal 1/3 of its fair cash value, except in Cook County.

The Madison County Board of Review, on appeal from FCB Banks, lowered the 2013 assessed value of the bank’s property at 208 N. Bluff Rd., Collinsville, to $251,820. FCB had sought a reduction to $246,000 from the 2012 assessed value of $495,480, David Mannix, of Guin, Mundorf LLC, in Collinsville, said.

Guin Mundorf will represent Unit 10 in both cases. General Chemicals initiated the PTAB process, while Unit 10 initiated the action with FCB.

Challenging a change in assessment, or an attempted change in assessment, of over $100,000 is relatively common, Mannix said. “Typically, if the assessment change is over $100,000, taxing bodies will intervene to at least see the evidence the property owners have,” Mannix said.

Appeals have become more common since the housing market crash of 2008, Barney Mundorf, of Guin Mundorf said. School Board President Gary Peccola, who previously appealed an assessment himself, said he has mixed feelings about the process.

“You can’t blame people for trying to lower their assessments,” Peccola said. “But at the same time, we’re hurting for money.”

The next step in the process is to hire an independent appraiser to appraise each property. The School Board allotted $5,000 for the appraisal of the General Chemicals property and $3,000 for the FCB property.

Guin Mundorf has discussed with other taxing bodies in the area the possibility of sharing the appeals costs. Mannix declined comment on the progress of the talks. The taxing bodies must pass a resolution to intervene in the process, but can share the cost of Unit 10’s intervention without a resolution, Mannix said.

The probability that Unit 10 will succeed in the interventions is dependent on the reliability of the appraisal, Mundorf said. The cost of the interventions is worth the risk of an unfavorable outcome, Peccola said.

“If we do nothing, we are guaranteed of losing money,” Peccola said.

Due to a large PTAB backlog, the process is expected to take over a year, Mannix said.