Candidate questions tax exemption

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WOODSTOCK – Sheriff Keith Nygren has received homestead exemptions on taxes for property he owns both in McHenry County and in Florida, but on Tuesday he denied any wrongdoing and dismissed criticism related to it as political mudslinging.

Nygren said he asked to have the homestead exemption for the house in Hebron removed after his wife became a Florida resident and sought a homestead exemption for a house they own in Cape Coral, Fla.

The McHenry County exemption was removed in March, but local blogger Gus Philpott, who is seeking the Green Party’s nomination for sheriff, and other bloggers recently have used the Florida homestead exemption to question Nygren’s candidacy for re-election.

Nygren said the homestead exemption was a financial decision aimed at limiting increases in the Florida property taxes when the housing market was booming. In Florida, property assessment increases are capped at 3 percent annually for residents and 10 percent annually for nonresidents.

Nygren said the homestead decision did not reflect upon the amount of time he spent in McHenry County nor on his Illinois residency.

“My wife spends probably seven months of the year there,” Nygren said. On Wednesday, Nygren clarified a previous statement and said he spends a few days at a time in Florida, which amounts to a few weeks overall.

An administrator for the property appraiser in Lee County, Fla., said Nygren’s wife, Margarete, applied for and was granted a homestead exemption in 2007 after she indicated that she had registered to vote in Florida and received a Florida license plate and driver’s license.

Her husband’s residency did not affect her ability to receive the exemption, but the application paperwork indicated that a married couple could not receive homestead exemptions in multiple jurisdictions, said Linda Anderson, public service director for Lee County’s Property Appraiser’s Office.

Anderson’s office received an anonymous call in March indicating that the Nygrens were receiving multiple homestead exemptions.

McHenry County Assessor Donna Mayberry said township assessors certify homestead exemptions locally without receiving an application or any formal paperwork from the property owner, so it’s not uncommon for property owners not to realize they are receiving multiple exemptions.

Some states are more stringent about checking for exemption records, so Mayberry said her office frequently fielded questions from their counterparts in Florida and other hot retirement spots.

Mayberry said she could not remember whether Nygren inquired about his homestead exemption before or after officials from Florida asked her about it in March. Mayberry said Illinois law did not allow the county to bill the Nygrens for back taxes associated with the homestead exemption in McHenry County.

Florida law, however, does allow it. Anderson said her office was considering billing the Nygrens for the taxes associated with the exemption they received in 2007 and 2008. She estimated that the amount would be about $1,100.

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