Kane board member pays tax bill; avoids sale date

The poor economy that has complicated Kane County's budget can also claim a board member as one of its victims.

Elgin Republican Cathy Hurlbut owed just over $26,000 in unpaid property taxes on the office building under her name. The building on McLean Boulevard in Elgin houses Hurlbut's law firm and one other tenant these days.

"We have had some financial constraints," Hurlbut said last week. "I'm suffering through what everyone else is."

"It'll get paid," she added.

And the taxes were paid, Friday afternoon.

Hurlbut had until Friday to pay off the taxes or face the property going to the county's tax sale. Her name and the property were included among thousands of others on Kane's delinquent tax list published earlier this month.

Those properties are part of sale today and Tuesday at the Kane County Government Center. Treasurer David Rickert said 90 people paid $500 to register to participate in the sale, which works like an auction.

Bids are made to establish an interest rate attached to the delinquent tax amount.

The winning bidder pays the taxes to create a lien on the property. They then wait for the property owner to "redeem" the taxes -- they have about two years to do so -- by paying off the overdue amount plus interest.

"For tax buyers, this is really about investing," Rickert said.

Generally speaking, few properties actually ever change hands because of the tax lien.

The nearly 8,000-square-foot building was built in 1978 and purchased by Hurlbut in 2002 for $700,000, records show. It carries a current assessed value of almost $1 million and has seen its taxes drop by $4,000 since 2005.

Hurlbut explained "it's been a tight couple of years" for her firm, although she's avoided any layoffs to her small staff this year. The office building used to have five tenants, but has lost all except one.

Her firm's tax situation, she says, gives her additional perspective when sitting in County Board debates on how to tighten up spending to fix budget gaps.

"When I take a hard line on budgets ... I know I'm doing what I can to keep our doors open," she said of her business. "You have to balance off."

County records indicate the building's taxes have been late once before, in 2005, but were paid without being posted as delinquent.

Hurlbut's first-half property taxes on her Elgin home, due in June this year, were paid three months late.