Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board seeks more resources to clear caseload

[December 08, 2022]  By Andrew Hensel | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Members of the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board is requesting improvements to their offices from the Illinois Legislative Audit Commission.

The five-member board, also known as PTAB, provides an unbiased forum for taxpayers and taxing bodies dealing property tax challenges. A taxpayer unhappy with an assessment decision before their county board of review can appeal to PTAB.

The most recent audit released earlier this year showed the agency "did not allow for the speedy hearing of all appeals," among other findings.

PTAB Executive Director Michael O'Malley told the audit commission that more resources are needed for agency workers to keep doing their jobs.

"We are running into a problem where we are running out of space," O'Malley said. "Our office here in Springfield lost a third of its office space to the House Republicans because of the capital renovations."

More than $200 million of construction is taking place at the capitol with major renovations being done to the north wing of the capitol, causing senators' offices to be moved to other offices in Springfield. Construction is expected for at least two more years.

O'Malley said that PTAB also needs to hire more qualified employees to help with their case workload.

"We asked for three independent law judges, but we are looking to hire five, but we are out of desk space," O'Malley said. "We can look at that and get a general idea of how many [cases] we can close with additional staff. We realized that the five additional staff we asked for last year was not enough."

The agency had about 35 employees in 2020, up from 29 in 2018, an audit shows.

PTAB has had to rearrange other offices this year to make up for their lack of space, O'Malley said.

"Our Des Plaines office was full of files. We have subsequently removed those and are in the process of moving our Des Plaines office to downtown Chicago, which will give us room for additional staff members," he said.

Andrew Hensel has years of experience as a reporter and pre-game host for the Joliet Slammers, and as a producer for the Windy City Bulls. A graduate of Iowa Wesleyan University and Illinois Media School, Andrew lives in the south suburbs of Chicago.