South Central Reporter

Macoupin County has been assigned a final property assessment equalization factor of 1.0000, according to David Harris, director of the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR). This factor, also known as the "multiplier," is used to ensure uniform property assessments across counties, which is necessary due to overlapping local taxing districts such as school and fire protection districts.

The law requires that property in Illinois be assessed at one-third of its market value. However, farm properties are assessed differently; homesites and dwellings follow regular procedures while farmland is valued based on agricultural economic value and not subject to state equalization.

Assessments in Macoupin County currently stand at 33.10% of market value, based on sales data from 2021 through 2023. The current equalization factor applies to taxes for 2024, payable in 2025. Last year's factor was also set at 1.0000.

The final assessment factor was confirmed after a public hearing following the tentative factor issued on March 27, 2025, which was also set at 1.0000. This annual determination involves comparing recent sale prices with assessed values over three years by county assessors.

A change in the equalization factor does not directly affect total property tax bills; these are determined by local taxing bodies' financial requests each year. If these requests do not exceed those from the previous year, total taxes remain unchanged despite any increase in assessments.

An individual property's assessed value dictates its share of the tax burden but is unaffected by changes in the multiplier.