Mercer County will apply a property assessment equalization factor of 1.0000 for the 2024 tax year, confirmed by David Harris, the director of the Illinois Department of Revenue. The equalization, often called the “multiplier,” ensures uniform property assessments across counties in Illinois, as required by law. This uniformity is crucial for the state’s various local taxing districts, such as school and fire protection districts, that extend over multiple counties, preventing inequity among taxpayers.
According to a 1975 law, properties in Illinois are assessed at one-third of their market value, though farmland is assessed differently. In Mercer County, assessments are at 33.50% of market value based on sales data from the years 2021, 2022, and 2023. The equalization factor for the current year remains unchanged at 1.0000 from the previous year, determined after a public hearing with a tentative factor released in March.
The factor is calculated annually by comparing the market sale prices of properties over the past three years to their assessed values. When this average assessment equals one-third of the market value, the equalization factor remains one. Deviations from this standard result in a factor that is higher or lower than one.
A change in the equalization factor does not necessarily lead to an increase or decrease in individual property tax bills. The bills are set by local taxing bodies based on their annual budget requests. Therefore, if local taxing districts do not request higher revenues than the previous year, total property taxes will not increase, even if assessments do.
Moreover, while the assessed value impacts an individual’s share of the tax burden, it remains unaffected by the multiplier.
