Meet Joe Kral, Frankfort Patch's Person of the Year

Patch readers voted in December to select the Frankfort Township assessor as Patch's Person of the Year. Kral sat down recently with Patch to discuss the importance of educating the public about the tax assessment process.

Editor's note: Frankfort Patch readers voted in December to select Joe Kral as Frankfort Patch's Person of the Year. To learn more about Kral and his work for Frankfort Township, read our Person of the Year profile below. Joe Kral is the Frankfort Township Assessor, but he also considers himself to be a public educator. “Joe Kral is the type of person you want in government,” said Ed Ebner, a Frankfort resident who has sought assistance through the assessor’s office regarding his property taxes. As the township assessor, Kral, a former appraiser and business owner, is charged with assigning properties with the value from which their property taxes are derived. In 2012, he assessed approximately 24,000 parcels of land in the Frankfort area…

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

County Official: Home Values Down for Third Year

The Will County Supervisor of Assessments announced Wednesday that homeowners should expect to see a reduction in their property values for 2012. But there are signs for optimism on the horizon.

The majority of Will County homeowners will see a decrease in the assessed value of their property for 2012, with an overall average reduction of about 6.44 percent throughout the area, a county official announced Wednesday, Aug. 1. This is the third year the county has seen a decline, due in large part to the lingering effects of the recent housing market crash and struggling economy, said Rhonda Novak, Will County Supervisor of Assessments, in a press release. “The reduction is a direct reflection of the drop in property values that Will County, and much of our nation, has been experiencing for several years,” she stated in the release. READ: 3 Property Tax Questions You Need Answered But a lower assessment doesn't translate to a lower …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

Have Questions About Your Property Taxes? Ask the Frankfort Twp. Assessor

Frankfort Township Assessor Joe Kral will field readers' questions they have on property taxes and home values.

Ask the Assessor: 3 Property Tax Questions You Need Answered

Frankfort Township Assessor Joe Kral talks about the inquiries he hears most often from homeowners about their property taxes. Plus, leave your own questions for Kral in the comments section.

Ask any homeowner what the most irritating part of owning that dream two-story Colonial is and odds are property taxes will be in his or hers top 5 list (probably behind that pesky squirrel who knocks out all the bird seed from the backyard feeder). Even longtime homeowners can be confused at how their property tax bill is determined. That's why Frankfort Township Assessor Joe Kral--the man who establishes a home's property value--has been making the rounds in the area to answer residents' property tax questions. He's visited the libraries in Mokena and Tinley Park, and he returns to Frankfort Public Library at Thursday, April 12, for a presentation. (Registration for the event is closed.) With homeowners' first property tax payment due …

•  3 Comments
• Photos (1)
• Documents (1)