Reis Seeks to Protect Taxpayers and Preserve Forest Land

March 28, 2006

Springfield.….In an effort to preserve Illinois’ forest land and to maintain reasonable tax assessments on wooded properties, State Representative David Reis (R-Ste. Marie) joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers Tuesday to discuss a measure they hope will provide a permanent solution to the controversy surrounding timberland assessments.

Rep. Reis and his colleagues are backing House Joint Resolution 95, calling on the Department of Revenue to maintain the timberland assessments at the tax year 2005 level for a period of two years. The resolution also creates a task force of 12 members to study the issue and come up with a solution and submit a report by December 31, 2006.

“There has not been an issue that has generated more correspondence in our office than the woodlands assessment tax,” Reis said. “A lot of these landowners have made no improvements on their property nor do they have any way of generating revenue from it. Some of them are going to see their taxes go from a buck and a half an acre to as high as forty or fifty dollars an acre. With this resolution, we have a way to bring some much-needed common sense to the situation.”

At issue is the Department of Revenue’s efforts to get counties to more accurately assess properties and the rising costs of this move. Some counties have already been assessing timberland correctly, while many other counties have been incorrectly assessing timberland which has resulted in a significantly lower assessment. The Department is requiring these counties to implement a new procedure in order to get a more accurate assessment of the timberland. Bulletin 810 was published to address the issue. The new procedure could result in higher assessments for many wooded properties, which ultimately means many property owners will end up having to pay higher property taxes for their timberland.

“You could tell in the press conference today the reporters really didn’t understand how much this is going to affect taxpayers,” said Reis “and they didn’t understand the complexity of the solutions that face the task force.” According to the Department of Natural Resources, 90% of forest land in Illinois is privately owned. There are 169,000 private landowners and the average ownership is 21.5 acres. In addition, there are about 53,000 landowners who own forests of 15 acres of land or greater.

“I am extremely happy that there is some light at the end of the tunnel on the timberland assessments situation” said Reis. “The two-year moratorium and the creation of the task force bring some common sense solutions to the problem. I look forward to the recommendations from the task force that we can act upon in next year’s General Assembly.

HJR95 has passed the House and is awaiting a vote on the Senate floor.