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.
I like to cite studies like this when folks think Illinois needs to spend more on education… – Of the 4 states with higher GDP’s than Illinois, only one (NY) spends more per pupil – We spend a lot more than California, even with their super-high tax rates – Of the 9 states with no state income tax on regular income, only Alaska and Wyoming spend more As the article mentions, comparing how much cost of living deviates from education spending raises some interesting observations as well. On one end of the spectrum, there are states like Nevada that have… Read more »
Illinois education spending is higher than 14. The Illinois education spending figures (roughly K-12) do not include the annual state contribution to the TRS pension fund which is now roughly around $3.5 billion dollars. That number is likely going up. Per a January 11, 2016 letter from TRS. “RE: Final Certification of FY 2017 TRS State Contribution Requirement” “• Under current law, the certified FY 2017 state contribution is $3,986,583,351. • Under Actuarial Math 2.0, the certified FY 2017 state contribution is $6,070,973,314.” TRS is the Teachers Retirement System of the State of Illinois, which is the pension system for… Read more »
This might help to understand education revenues spending in Illinois.
Here are the major buckets of state revenues to school districts for early childhood – 12 spending.
– General State Aid (GSA)
– Block Grants (Special Education, Early Childhood Education, Transportation, etc.)
– State Contribution to the Pension fund
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At the local level, property taxes are obviously the major source of revenue.
But there are also fees charged by school districts.
And some counties have in Illinois have approved by referendum a county school facilities occupation tax for education.
Good work, Mike. Those are important points. Personally, I’m inclined to agree with what Mike Royko said about CPS decades ago. Paraphrasing, the real problem in Chicago schools is that the parents are worthless.