Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2012
Poster Presentation
Analysis of Real Estate Taxes in Illinois
Monica Vaughan
Don Johnson
Accounting and Finance
The purpose of this project is to analyze of Real Estate taxes in the state of Illinois. This
project will determine if the amount of Real Estate taxes put toward a particular
department (education and police services) will have a correlation with the overall
performance of that department. It compares the percent of taxes, found from the Illinois
Department of Revenue, going towards education to the average ISAT score, found
from the Illinois Board of Education, in each county. Also it will compare the percent of
taxes going toward police protection to the crime rates per county, found from the Illinois
State Police. Regression models will be used to determine correlation of taxes and
department performance. The purpose will be to determine if there is a correlation
between taxes and outcomes of these departments. Other findings are that there seems
to be other reasons why schools perform the way they do that does not correlate with
taxes alone. In addition, crime rates do not correlate with the taxes put towards police
protection in each county due to other factors. The project will show that the percent of
taxes put towards a particular project does not have a notable correlation with the
performance of that department