Majority of Sycamore tax refund checks cashed after overtaxation, city says

SYCAMORE – The majority of the almost $120,000 that Sycamore residents were overtaxed on their 2022 city property tax bills has been refunded, officials said this month.

Tax rebate checks were sent out to Sycamore residents this spring after a December 2023 Sycamore City Council vote. The vote came about a month after a Daily Chronicle review of tax records found that the city had taxed Sycamore residents at a higher rate than what the City Council approved for 2022 property tax bills.

Sycamore City Manager Michael Hall said this week that the majority of property taxpayers should have received their refunds by now.

“I just wanted to report on the levy checks,” Hall said during the most recent City Council meeting. “Eighty percent of them have been cashed, totaling $101,021.”

The 2022 property tax levy that the council approved in December 2022 was not the same levy that went out to taxpayers for 2022 bills payable in 2023, according to multiple government documents including DeKalb County tax records from the DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, city and Sycamore City Council minutes.

Sycamore officials initially called the issue a “clerical error” in a November statement released after the Daily Chronicle began asking about its findings.

Weeks later, after talking to lawyers representing the city, Hall said the overtaxation was an administrative issue and the city would mail checks to all land owners who paid the 2022 property tax.

Hall said checks that for one reason or another can’t be mailed to a 2022 property taxpayer are being given over to state officials.

“There are 52 that have been remitted to the state because it was uncollectible, so they’ll go down there in collections services,” Hall said. “We have a total checks remaining about $17,094 that haven’t been cashed yet.”