You could say real estate appraisal is in my blood. As a third generation real estate valuation professional, I have been afforded the luxury of a lot of practical experience. I have the honor of serving the residents of Naperville Township and also served the State of Illinois at the appointment of Governor Rauner.
I strive to maintain Naperville’s reputation for being the most accurate assessing jurisdiction in Illinois and I take great pride performing the main responsibility of any assessor, which is to be fair and equitable for all property owners in the jurisdiction.
Equitable assessments fairly distribute property taxes between residential, commercial, and industrial properties. Homeowners are aware of the value of their own property and their assessment, while being unaware of how they are affected by the appeal process.
Commercial appeals potentially shift the property tax burden to other properties. Local assessing jurisdiction annually defend millions of dollars in reduction appeals by property owners and property tax firms. The successful defense of these fair assessments by the local assessors secure that the shift of those property taxes do not go from the appellant to the residential property owner.
A local elected Assessor has a vested interest to maintain this fair and equitable position, versus a consolidated county Assessor, like Cook County, that might not reside in or care about the local impact.
Naperville residents do not want Assessors from Bloomingdale, Wheaton or Carol Stream appraising their property tax base. An assessor with no accountability to local residents lends itself to settlement agreements, increased appeals and less accurate and equitable assessments. This would result in property tax increases to many property owners.
People are most accountable when affected by their own decisions. Knowledgeable officials with a vested interest in the community they work and live in will result in accurate assessments and more reasonable taxes.
