The Daily Herald has done the analysis showing property taxes have increased across the state by $4.8 Billion over 2005 and in Chicago and the suburbs by $3.5 Billion. Of course the school districts have had the largest share of the tax increases at 62.8%.
A Daily Herald analysis of Illinois Department of Revenue reports from 2010 and 2005 shows that 300 suburban school districts in six counties plus Chicago Public Schools accounted for most of the property tax increase. The school districts levied $2.2 billion more in 2010 than they received in 2005, with Cook County’s 152 school districts responsible for more than $1 billion of the increase.
One of the issues here is these billions of your tax dollars occur EVERY year and will continue increasing in perpetuate.
“It’s a really big stinking problem,” said Jack Roeser of Barrington, chairman of the Family Taxpayers Foundation, a conservative organization often critical of the state’s public education system. “It’s all tied up in the way you run it.”
The Illinois legislature currently is considering shifting some of the state’s future teacher retirement costs to the local school districts.
“What will happen with that is that it will instantly increase the property taxes,” Roeser said.
The taxpayers of Illinois are at a distinct disadvantage to the political class who run the taxing bodies.
We cannot rely on the State Legislature to fix themselves. They broke it, and their only solution is for you to pick up the tab. There is the continued talk about making the 67% tax increase permanent and shifting the pensions debt back onto to the local taxing bodies. A pension shift, as Jack Roeser, said, “it will instantly increase the property taxes”. It will remain this way until more citizens step up to the plate and start running for school board, park district board, library board and villages. This is the only way out of the mess Illinois is in. Only you can stop the continued tax increases.
About Lennie Jarratt
