Your property taxes pay for government workers’ guaranteed salaries, benefits and pensions while you get no such guarantees – Wirepoints on with Jeff Daly of WZUS Decatur Radio
April 18, 2024
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Ted joined Jeff Daly to discuss why Illinois’ property taxes are such a national outlier, why Illinoisans are forced to pay the high, guaranteed salaries, benefits and pensions of the government class, why Illinoisans aren’t getting their money’s worth for what they pay, the teachers unions’ influence over elections, and more.
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Donna Miller’s husband, David Miller, was a state representative (2001-2011). Surely, they discussed political issues, including taxes, before she became Cook County Commissioner in 2018. ??
Your property assessment is more of a ranking in whatever taxing bodies your property is in. The vast majority of taxes are school districts and the city/town/village you live in. Your individual assessment is the numerator the sum of all the properties is the denominator. That is your slice of the pie. Doubling an assessment means nothing if they are all doubled, your slice remains the same. If you think your assessment is too high check what % of the revenue your home provides to the taxing body versus previous years/assessments.Lowering or raising assessments more or less together in an… Read more »
I agree.
If the GOP retains the Senate in January the leaders of Illinois – the unions – will require a record level of increased and new taxes. They will look to other states to see what additional taxes can be levied; for example, taxing services is low-hanging fruit.
JB will not want to disappoint all of those fifty-somethings with six figure pensions playing golf in sunny Florida on your dime. Even more favored are those couples who have two pensions totaling > 200k. No pension bailout means it’s time to get out of Dodge.
It isn’t only Cook County and the damn south-side, nor is it just people of “color”. The Property tax grab in this state is obscene and doesn’t play favorites. Illinois is taxing people right out of their homes and I fear it will only get worse, driving down actual property values and making them financial prisons.
Exactly, it’s the entire state but the media wants to play on people of color like you stated, never have I heard a news article about property taxes in the suburbs always the city of Chicago. This sh-t is getting old people’s lives in the suburbs matter to.
Here is the endgame: political class insiders buy up busted-out properties using leveraged loans from friendly banks, thus risking little of their own capital…once ownership transfers, p-tax policy changes or TIF grants make formerly busted-out properties worth a great deal more.
Why?
The answer is simple.
Its called elections have consequences.
Dem Mafia running the state, yet people keep voting them back in.
Not me, it’s my ret*dard neighbors like the mom with the “nasty woman” t shirt and pink hat (who works in academia, go figure) or the emasculated liberal man who fosters dogs and thinks I’m sub human for supporting Trump and never passes a chance to vocalize his feelings about people like me (Business owner, fiscal conservative). I’ve concluded their’s is a genetic, fundamental different understanding of the world.
Downstate, Coles county, 100% increase in one year is common.
If you want this madness to stop then move to Indiana.
Otherwise get the homeless tent ready.
No wonder taxes are high! Dolton school district 148 super’s salary is almost $325K and a few ass’t supers at over $170K with 2,051 students. Dolton school district 149 super’s salary is approx $312K with ass’t supers over $ 225K with 2530 students. In comparison Rockford Dist 205 super salary is $250K with 27,000 students. Top heavy in administrative bloat as are all school districts. Now add in salaries for police-fire-park/etc and people wonder why property taxes are so high. I’m sure they get platinum health care benefits to boot. Probably no cuts were made only raises and more hiring.… Read more »
Exactly. The schools are a bloated nightmare. They can close schools like Lincoln-Way North but payroll for the district keeps increasing.
And why the focus on the south suburbs? Property taxes have gone up the same percentage or more throughout Cook County.
Focus is merited everywhere, but the Southland generally has the highest property tax as a percentage of property value in the Chicago area. The property taxes impact a minority population, who frankly are trying to the same as everyone else in trying to take a step up the economic ladder through home ownership. The high property taxes lead to neglected or abandoned properties, leaving absentee landlords who often care little about their tenants. Big Government purports to stand for working people, but it so often is not the case. In my youth, there was little competition for me in the… Read more »
Perhaps Chicago residents will someday finally realize the equation is so very simple.
Liberal Dems = Higher Taxes
It is amazing how difficult it is for them to make the connection.
They feel so virtuous and woke. Deductive reasoning is not part of their thought process.
Liberal Dems + Greedy Union Members = Higher Taxes
“Liberal Dems + Greedy Union Members = Higher Taxes” AND worse and worse “services”, if you can call it that