Property tax assessments have been a source of controversy in Cook County in recent years.

But now they’re creating a stir among some residents of Lake County, Illinois.

Last night, members of the newly formed grassroots coalition known as the Citizens Action Project presented the results of a recently completed white paper.

It concludes that the process of assessing property values in Lake County is arbitrary and convoluted.

And they say it wildly distorts property taxes.

Thor Madsen is one of the leaders of the project.

He says it all started six months ago when residents started noticing disparities in assessments of as much as 40 percent – even between similar houses in the same neighborhood.

So they decided to take up the issue, motivated by fairness—not high tax bills.