The Illinois property tax system is complex and can be overwhelming to many citizens.  In Kane County, it involves assessing more than 189,790 parcels with a total market value of nearly $14 billion, calculating tax rates for 558 taxing districts, and collecting more than 379,500 tax payments.  Total tax collections amount to $945,497,712.  (2005 statistics)

Kane County property owners pay property taxes which generate revenue used to operate municipalities, schools, parks, libraries, road districts, as well as fire and police departments and districts.

The property tax system is based on the value of the property.  It involves two separate component activities:

1.  Determining the amount of taxes to operate the local units of government.

2.  Apportioning that tax burden among all taxpayers.

The system provides a means of generating necessary revenue.  That amount is determined by each local unit of government.

The system also places a value on the property.  The burden of generating the needed revenue can be spread among the parcels of property according to the proportionate value of each parcel.

Kane County is under the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law which caps increases in property tax extensions for non-home rule taxing districts.  Increases in tax extensions are limited to the lesser of 5% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the year preceding the levy year.  This limit slows the growth of property tax revenues to taxing districts when property values and assessments are increasing faster than the rate of inflation.