By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Wirepoints spoke on a panel held by the Greater Chicagoland Black Chamber of Commerce this past weekend in the village of Glendale, down in Cook County’s south suburbs, typically known as Southland. Much of the population there is black and they’ve been pummeled economically over the last few decades. The topic was the region’s outrageous property tax rates and in particular, the massive tax spike the area experienced last year. We detailed the reasons for those high taxes, six of which are laid out below.
It’s not hyperbolic to say property taxes there have “spiked.” In Dixmoor, the median residential tax bill more than doubled, up 122%. Ditto in Phoenix, up 107%. Harvey’s bills were up 82%. Overall, the median property tax bill in Southland was up a whopping 20% last year. For context, understand that these are areas where median household incomes are only in the $40,000 to $50,000 range.
What’s clear is that Southland residents want more than just talk. Marsetti Young, a finance specialist coordinator for the Village of Monee, said he’s tired of hearing the same talk year after year. “Let’s get some action. I’m tired of signing petitions.”
“I’m mad and I’m upset,” said another resident from Matteson. “Should I stay or should I go?”
That’s the right question. Blacks have been leaving the suburbs in droves. Cook County has lost more than 250,000 black residents since 2000.
At Wirepoints we’ve written in detail about the effective tax rates in South Cook. They are punitive and value-destructive. Check out the biggest hikes from last year, based on data from the Cook County Treasurer’s Office.
There are multiple factors pushing up those residential taxes. Here’s a few of the big ones:
1. There’s the faulty, non-transparent practices in how property taxes are being determined in Cook County and across Illinois. Plenty’s been written about the corrupt assessments under Joe Berrios and it’s hard to know what’s been fixed and what hasn’t. But residential properties have borne the brunt of the mess.
2. Then there’s the corruption of the whole property tax appeals process and how big commercial property tax bills are “appealed” lower, pushing residential tax bills up to compensate. Exhibit A and B for that kind of “appeals corruption” are former House Speaker Mike Madigan and former Chicago alderman Ed Burke.
3. There’s also the fact that Illinois has the most units of government in the country, which means more bosses, more bureaucrats and more support staff. The duplication and overlap of government means more of the same when it comes to salaries, benefits and of course, pensions. Compare Illinois to Florida, a far bigger state, to see just how bloated our state is.
4. How about the fact that levies – the amounts governments raise and spend – only go up, up, up. No matter what happens, levies never go down, not even as populations shrink. Instead, each government typically grabs whatever increase it can each and every year, whether it needs it or not. It’s why the growth in property taxes has outpaced Illinoisans’ median incomes for decades.
5. Since commercial property values have dropped, the tax burden has been passed on to residential properties. That’s particularly true in South Cook given the massive hit the region has seen when it comes to commercial and industrial property losses over the last few decades. Last year’s reassessment was particularly brutal across the Southland area, with residential property tax bills spiking 20% even as commercial bills fell 9%.
6. Then there’s the power of the public sector unions and their continued demands for more government, more workers, more programs, more pay and more benefits. Exhibit A is the Chicago Teachers Union, but virtually all Illinois public sector unions are in sync with wanting more. School district costs are the biggest chunk of property tax bills no matter where you live in Illinois, so they should get the most attention. Administration and staffing across the state has ballooned even as enrollment has shrunk over the past 25 years.
A look at the top pay and biggest pensions for school districts point to part of the problem in Southland. The numbers are excessive.
There’s far more to why Illinoisans pay the nation’s highest property taxes and how Illinois has entered a vicious cycle where higher taxes chase out ever more residents and businesses. But the above failures point to where most of the “action” needs to be focused.
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Speaking of action – or inaction – Gov. Pritzker promised property tax relief back in his 2020 budget address. But his promised tax task force ended up a failure, and the governor has done nothing since to stop the constant increase in property taxes.
It’s no wonder that Young and millions of Illinoisans like him feel there’s nothing being done. Because it’s true.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Does Chicago Public Schools CEO Martinez deserve praise for taking on Mayor Johnson?
- Mayor Johnson’s spending decisions, falling revenues mean Chicagoans likely to get hit with 2025 property tax hike
- It’s not racist to call Chicago the nation’s murder capital. The Chicago Sun-Times has 617 reasons to call it that.
- Illinois’ Gov. Pritzker delivers Democrats’ national economic pitch at DNC. A look at his own record is revealing.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
How about listing the total amount of property tax delinquency town by town if available?
Service charge of 10% for any state pension paid to a out of state resident!
Can’t do that legally.
Geez, I didn’t even benefit from a $1,000 real estate tax bill when I owned a modest studio apartment condo on north-side of Chicago in early 1980s. Talk about discrimination.
Those south suburban $1000 RE tax bills don’t begin to pay for municipal services and public school districts serving these working-class south suburbs – is Cook County subsidizing these suburbs? And that said, the tax-delinquency rates in those suburbs are extraordinarily high.
And that said, these very low real estate taxes aren’t even reliably collected by Cook County.
Nearly 30 years ago I was paying $2,100 – $2,300 in property taxes on a modest 3 br, 1 bath home in Will County. Last check on Zillow shows the house hasn’t gotten any bigger, the landscaping I installed or updated hasn’t been added to, but the taxes are over $4K. The last time the house sold in 2016 it sold for less (not adjusted for inflation, just raw numbers) than I sold it for over twenty years ago. So yeah, really not shedding a tear, especially since I was paying $1K A MONTH in property taxes ($12K/year) on a… Read more »
I agree about the unreliability of the Cook County property tax collection. For years, the system has been abused by the likes of Pat Quinn and Mike Madigan where lowering the assessment formed the base income for their private law practice. Now, the CC Treasurer’s office offers financial help for homeowners who can’t pay their Prop. Tax? Where do these Officials think that money comes from? Never any talk about cutting government expenses!
Illinois needs to allow for municipal bankruptcies. Lots of pensioners need a haircut.
Correct, a trifecta of bankruptcies is the only solution for Illinois. Unfortunately, those that created and benefited from the over rich and poorly managed benefit programs, including unfunded liabilities, will no doubt be involved in the restructuring process.
First on the list is Troy Paraday. Here’s the scoop on him:
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/calumet-superintendent-fired-troy-paraday/
Is it too late to go after his pension?
Wirepoints you focus on cook county how about doing a segment on LockportTownship and Will County I think the Cook County numbers are minuscule to what we pay out here.
We will try to get to that and we already know you are generally right. The collar counties have long had, on average, higher actual rates than Cook County.
Thank you very much.
Here is an article from over a year ago about Rockford property taxes. The number is somewhat skewed since there are pockets of county within the borders of the City. The tax rate for city is 10.3834% and county within the city limits is 8.7268% both on 1/3rd value. So the %of taxes to home value is most likely averaged. Of course my rental is city. Most likely the average % tax is used so the city homes have a higher average percentage.
https://constructioncoverage.com/research/cities-with-the-highest-property-taxes-2023
Glendale has 7 TIF districts. Perhaps the people should look there for some tax relief.
What a laugh? These people are now being gored by their own ox. How many of them voted for democrats over the years, always telling themselves that the democrats are going to stick it to the “rich” and protect me. Well guess what, you just got promoted to the status of “rich”. Your democratic vote is doing just what it was designed to do. Don’t blame government because you were too stupid and believed the line they were feeding you. Now it is too late. SO stay their and enjoy your slavery.
Amen!!!
“Pay up, sucker!”
Where are the scapegoats?? Today’s lead Crians story in part blames Southlands astronomical prop tax increases on the “systemic racist disinvestment” tax scavenger sale (https://www.chicagobusiness.com/equity/south-suburban-towns-higher-property-tax-bills)…while barley mentioning astronomical growth in gov hires/salaries/pensions, 7,000 units of gov, etc, etc, etc. Is the machine running out of scapegoats??
And no one questions the business and regulatory environment which contributed to the exodus of the industrial base which supported the Southland. From my high school days in the 70’s competition in my sport was on the Southland was excellent, with many national level athletes. My mother would drive 60 miles south to expose me to this level of competition. The schools by the way had good facilities. This is not a sports comment but rather a comment on the kind of excellence a thriving middle class can produce. And the athlete population then was about as diverse as one… Read more »
Wonder how many of the pension multimillionaires still live in IL, or have moved to South Florida and beyond? It’s a really good grift if you can get it. Democrats worked hard to put this grift in place.
Come on, anyone that reads WP could see this coming, and this is just the beginning. The tax hikes will spread throughout Cook and into other areas of Illinois. The best predictor of the future is to look at the past. It is so easy to predict the future of Illinois because no effort is underway to do anything differently.
Perhaps Southland residents should stop voting for Dems.
Won’t happen. As one of the biggest employers in Chicago and Cook County, the public unions and their corrupted allies control the vote outcome. The Chicago machine is as formidable as the Roman Empire was