Peoria Standard

Legislation to establish that non-permanent fixtures including buildings and other structures could not be considered property under the Property Tax Code has cleared the State Senate.

Senate Bill 2154 passed with a unanimous vote on Feb. 25. 

"This bill is about the protection of a real estate issue and real estate taxpayers," Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) said during a debate on the Senate Floor. "It amends the property tax code to clarify between permanent structures being assessed as real property and temporary buildings or temporary structures that are not permanent fixtures."

Tracy is the lead sponsor on the bill which she filed in February of last year. 

"The language added is that building structures that are not permanently attached to the land are not considered property for the purpose of this code," Tracy said. 

She brought this issue before the Senate after one of her constituents ran into an issue with a small structure he had on his property.

"He keeps it on skids, these little pallet-type things, so that he can run it around his farm for use to store things or whatever he needs it, but it's not permanent and is not attached to the ground," Tracy said. "The local assessor assessed it as a fixture and this ran him about $20 extra per year; however, it's something that was important to him because he didn't think it was right."

The bill passed and will now go before the House for discussions and eventually a vote. 

It was first introduced over a year ago, but was stagnant from April 2021 up until the beginning of 2022 when it was reassigned to the Revenue Committee, according to the Illinois General Assembly website.

State Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) is sponsoring this legislation in the House. It's been referred to the Rules Committee.