GENEVA \u2014 The city\u2019s last property reassessment caused outrage among many property owners who saw significant increases in home values, fueled by a combination of skyrocketing real-estate prices and the city not having done one in a few years.<\/p>\n
The city decided it is going to stay on top of property values and ordered another property reassessment last year after having one completed two years ago.<\/p>\n
At a budget session last fall, City Manager Amie Hendrix said the goal of consistent property value updates is to ensure that \u201ceveryone\u2019s paying a fair share. Annual revaluations are meant to keep all your assessments equitable, accurate, (and) prevent sudden spikes. When you wait several years to do a revelation you may see 20-30% spikes.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the goal is reducing spikes of that size, it hasn\u2019t happened \u2014 at least for some.<\/p>\n
Overall, property assessments jumped 38%, according to the preliminary roll on the city\u2019s website. However, many property owners are seeing even bigger assessment bumps in the tentative roll, which they will have the opportunity to contest this month with the city assessor and, if necessary, with the Board of Assessment Review, which reviews grievances each June.<\/p>\n
Hendrix said the city had no comment at this time on the preliminary roll. The Times had requested comment from Hendrix, City Assessor Tina Rados, and Mayor Jim Cecere.<\/p>\n
Officials will provide an overview of the new assessments during a City Council meeting Tuesday at City Hall, 47 Castle St. It starts at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil that time, staff are unable to respond to press inquiries,\u201d Hendrix said.<\/p>\n
What residents are seeing<\/p>\n
In a response to a Facebook post by the Times concerning new assessments, a number of folks reported big hikes.<\/p>\n
Brandon Swanson of Nagel Place said his home\u2019s assessed value jumped from $135,000 to $220,000, an $85,000 increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I understand that an assessment increase doesn\u2019t automatically mean a dollar-for-dollar tax increase, a jump of this magnitude almost certainly guarantees a heavier tax burden, regardless of whether school and municipal budgets stay flat or are voted down,\u201d he said. \u201cMany of us are facing similar shock at these preliminary assessments. With school budget votes coming up and families already trying to manage costs, the anxiety around how these new valuations will impact our actual tax bills is extremely high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swanson said the \u201ccommunity needs more transparency on how these new values were calculated and what the real-world financial impact will be on Geneva homeowners when the new tax rates are ultimately set.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anri McCusker said she and her husband Chad\u2019s home on North Brook Street, which was assessed at $184,000 in 2025, jumped to $330,000 under the preliminary assessment, a 79% hike.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy neighbors have also experienced similar increases and can\u2019t wrap our heads around it,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, our neighbors directly one street over on Hillcrest had minimal increases with their homes assessed $100,000 less than ours but comparable properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like others, Anri McCusker is worried about the much higher assessment on her property taxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not in a position for our taxes to rise significantly, especially with the current economy,\u201d she said. \u201cThe city of Geneva needs to include an explanation of what this means to its residents, especially when they are nearly doubling someone\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaturally, the immediate emotion is panic, confusion, and anger. We purchased our home in 2018 for $70,000, fixed it up, and made it our own. We will leave the city if our taxes go up at the same rate of our assessment. I certainly hope this is not the case, but we are all owed an explanation of what this all means.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homeowner Gianna Fratangelo said in 2025, she was assessed at $184,000; one year later, it\u2019s up to $363,100, an increase of 97%.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love an explanation on how they arrived at this number,\u201d she said. \u201cIt seems like a crazy hike for a one-year time span.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dorie and Don Downs say their assessment rose from $169,600 to $232,200 in the tentative roll, a 37% hike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a giant leap,\u201d Dorie said. \u201cPeople are going to move. What are they doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
Assessments and taxes<\/p>\n
The city, as well as municipalities elsewhere, including the town of Geneva, emphasize that higher assessments don\u2019t necessarily mean higher taxes. According to a handout available on the city assessor\u2019s page on Geneva\u2019s website, the rule is as follows:<\/p>\n
If your property assessment increases at a percentage less than the average, your taxes should go down.If your assessment is increased higher than the average, your taxes most likely will go up.If your assessment increases the same amount as the average, your taxes should remain about the same.<\/p>\n
City officials stress the goal of reassessments is to ensure everyone pays their fair share.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way the taxing jurisdictions receive additional revenue is if they have an increase in their budgets,\u201d the handout says.<\/p>\n
Regardless of what governments say, there are many homeowners that see reassessment as a money grab.<\/p>\n
Resident Jessica Sutton said her home was reassessed last year for $205,000, \u201cso you can imagine my surprise to see another reassessment so quickly, and then my shock to see the latest assessment is $340,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sutton said she and her husband have made no changes to the house that would help explain the increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that someone can drive past my home and decide to increase its assessed value by 66% from last year is extremely troubling to say the least,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd because of that, I now need to go through the time and expense of formally grieving this, and they\u2019ve given me less than two weeks to gather and submit my documentation to do so, as the assessment review form is due no later than May 25. I respect that the assessor\u2019s office needs to maintain an accurate and realistic valuation of all of the properties, but a 66% increase over last year seems neither accurate nor realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2014 The city\u2019s last property reassessment caused outrage among many property owners who saw significant increases in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[39,65,2811,30851,25185,178],"class_list":["post-67724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-economy","tag-geneva","tag-government-finances","tag-political-economy","tag-property-tax","tag-tax"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116598107199083982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}