PoliticalNess: Illinois Policy

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Illinois Policy

I got this email today. I get so sick of this place sometimes, for all the corruption and having to pay for the privilege of living in such a corrupted place. And no, you can’t “just move!”

I’ve known people who think property tax issues don’t apply to renters, and I wanted to address that.

Whoever owns the property has to pay the property tax, so if you are renting, your landlord has to pay those taxes, and he will just raise your rent to defray those costs and still keep his profit margin. So property tax issues most certainly do apply to renters, as well.

You’ve heard the old saying “Home is where the heart is.”
For many middle-class families in Illinois, however, home is where the hurt is. That’s because Illinois now has the highest property taxes in the nation.
Our median property-tax rate is more than twice the national median rate. We’ve reached a point where some Illinois homeowners pay more in property taxes than they do on their mortgages.
All of this begs the question: Why are property taxes so high?
Because Illinois has more taxing bodies than any other state in the country.
In fact, Illinois has nearly 7,000 of them – that’s 1,800 more than the next-highest state, Texas. Many of these units of local government are overlapping and duplicative. They contribute to Illinois’ growing debt, waste and corruption.
It’s time for this to change.
That’s why we’re leading the charge to consolidate these duplicative layers of government and give homeowners the property-tax relief they deserve.
Will you join us today?

Your gift of $15, $35 or $50 to the Illinois Policy Institute will help Illinois homeowners take back control of our property taxes.
We can’t do it without you.

Kristina Rasmussen
President and Chief Operating Officer

Illinois Policy · 190 S. LaSalle St. · Suite 1500 · Chicago, IL 60603 · USA