Gilman Mayor’s Property Tax Doesn’t Reflect His New Home –

GILMAN, IL. (ECWd) –

Since sometime after 2016, Gilman Mayor Rick Theesfeld has not been paying the appropriate real estate taxes on the home he had built – which means the tax assessor has not been doing his job as required under the Illinois Property Tax Code.

Untaxed or undertaxed property takes money away from local governments, and places a higher tax burden on those property owners who are paying a higher tax do to their neighbor’s untaxed or undertaxed parcels.

Here is the issue with Mayor Theesfeld’s home and real estate taxes:

• on March 24, 2016 he obtained a building permit for 514 Park View Drive
• according to Bob Kramer, the Iroquois County Zoning Administrator stated on Feb 26, 2021, that no building permit had ever been delivered to his office in reference to that property
• Google maps shows the new house built at 514 Park View Drive (although google does not list that address)
• the Assessor’s (outdated) map DOES NOT show any house at that address
• the antiquated map used by Iroquois County Zoning Administrator DOES NOT show a house at that address
• the Township Assessor lives within eyesight of the new house, in an apartment building owned by the Mayor, and should be able to look directly at the Mayor’s new house every time he enters the parking lot of his residence.

While we do not know when the house was finished, we suspect, even with a generous timeline of 2 years, that it was finished at least by 2018, and should have been assessed at its market value for at least the last two years.

The problem, as we see it, is the assessor did not do his job to ensure proper assessments were made, the building permit was never delivered to the county zoning administration office, and Mayor Theesfeld never communicated with the assessor to ensure his real estate taxes were proper.

This is a prime example of why homeowners or real estate owners need to review their real estate taxes, and those of their neighbors, to ensure that all owners contribute what they are required to contribute, and that all property is properly assessed to keep some taxpayers from subsidizing the taxes of others without their knowledge.

Here is the most recent tax record for the Mayor’s house (HERE) and you can search by location, name, PIN number, etc by clicking (HERE) is you choose to conduct a little research on your own.

* Some of the information used in this article was provided by Bob Kramer, who initially spotted the tax issue with this property.