By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau
MARION — Open your tax bill this fall and you'll find Williamson County property owners are being asked, collectively, to hand over about $11.6 million more than last year. Try to find the one office responsible for that number, and you'll be looking a while.
The Southern Illinoisan reports the increase can't be traced to a single government body or a single part of the tax system — it's spread across the layers of local government that all draw from the same well. County officials Gott and Absher differ on the path forward for relief, according to the paper, each pointing to a different fix.
That's the trouble with property taxes in a county this size: everybody agrees the bill is too high, and almost nobody agrees on whose line item to cut. Meanwhile the number on the notice doesn't care who takes the blame — it just comes due.
Watch this one. When two officials start arguing publicly about the path to relief, it usually means neither has found one yet.
filed from the courthouse steps, where the ghosts take good notes.
— Compiled from reporting by the Southern Illinoisan.
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