By: Diane Benjamin
All of the information on local properties was found on the County Property Tax Inquiry website: https://mcleanil.devnetwedge.com/
Tax rates in Bloomington depend on whether the house is in Unit 5 or District 87. All of Normal is Unit 5.
Correction to previous versions:
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The houses below were chosen to represent various areas of Bloomington and Normal. I hope you realize taxing you on unrealized gains is unethical if not illegal. It is no different than a plan floated by the left to tax gains in 401K plans when no money has been taken out.
If you don’t sell your house there is no guarantee the value you are taxed at now will still exist when you sell. Remember the housing crash? Local assessed values did decline for tax year 2012.
Thanks to a reader who sent this link: https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/why-property-tax-illegal
That article has numerous other reasons property taxes are illegal. Worth reading!
The homes below all show the 10 year percentage changes in actual taxes and assessed values. Imagine what property taxes will be in another 10 years. Blame inflation?
The chart below is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet
Since these are “official” numbers I will use them. Other sources show 2021 & 2022 MUCH higher. BLS doesn’t include food or energy.
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In case you are wondering what the actual inflation rate was: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
The total from 2015-2025 is still less than the increases below.
All but one home had Assessed Values and Property Taxes increase faster than inflation. Note the Bloomington tax rates. They weren’t the same back in 2014 either.
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The first house is in the area Normal is planning to further degrade by putting apartments (Essex) in this single family neighborhood
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More information you need to know: https://constructioncoverage.com/research/average-property-tax-by-state-county-city
Illinois has the highest property taxes in the country – McLean County has the 14th highest property taxes in the COUNTRY:
In my 35+ years in real estate, I have never seen a bigger bubble form in real estate values. The current bubble has been filling for 4+ years. A very looonnnng bull market! Taxing bodies LOVE the fact that values zoom upward every year. They take advantage of every dime on this money tree! My guess is that we are in the bottom of the 7th, or top of the 8th inning in this UP cycle. WHEN this cycle ends (and it will someday), the housing “shortage” will end abruptly and a massive number of homeowners will bemoan how much they paid for their “overvalued” homes that they are stuck with and cannot sell. Property taxes in a down market? When that happens, assessed values will come down as slow as “molasses in January” but be reassured that your local taxing bodies will be cranking UP levies to keep your tax bill as high as possible. The taxing bodies are smart, they also foresee the bubble ending some day so that is why they had voters approve their sales tax increase! Only in Illinois!
For me saving up for a vacation or saving to buy a new car has been replaced with saving to pay my property taxes every year! This year, just like that, I have to come up with an extra $1,000. I don’t want to start using my credit card to pay my taxes, but this is what Illinois is doing to us. This can’t continue.
Affordable housing? Rent control? That’s a pipe dream.
But wait, ILLannoy is still not satisfied. These b*st**ds will never be satisfied. New legislation being proposed to tax more of your paycheck and the employer as well. Please oh Lord, let them bring back double taxation as infinity taxation is killing us. See the link: https://www.americafirstnews.com/illinois-workers-could-see-paycheck-deductions-under-new-state-agency-plan/
When rent goes up again that is already unaffordable renters will have less money to pay it! Brilliant
At our new rate we will pay another 50,000 for our house over the next 10 years (and of course it will increase more!)… there is no way it is worth what we are paying! And Unit 5 gets about 80% of that tax to DESTROY our children’s brains… look at your breakdown (online) of where the money goes! We must all start attending the government meetings and we must all VOTE against both their referendums AND against the people supporting and STEALING our money for their pet projects!
People don’t show up to vote. They won’t attend meetings either.
I delved into reading more on the weblink about totally eliminating property taxes in all 50 states and imposing a state sales tax. Supposedly presented to Trump and DOGE. The impact would be releasing over $1 trillion into the economy. Mom and Pop would no longer be forced out of their home. The way it should be. I can only imagine the blow back from the taxing bodies (school districts) if this would be implemented.
The interesting part was when I got to the bond debt incurred by school districts. When you divide the per student cost and per household cost out it was mind blowing. One example showed tuition at Harvard was less than what the per student cost was. Basically school districts are kicking the can down the road by extending out the bond debt timeline with an increase in rates and on top of that they take on even more bond debt.
Many districts are reluctant to divulge what their bond debt is probably in fear of lawsuits by taxpayers for fraud. The weblink provides a template for filing a lawsuit was my understanding.
The part about the 16th Amendment was it seemed vague and somewhat confusing. I took it as the government doesn’t own your land/property and property taxes are illegal. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
As I recall from once being on a school board was the Superintendent drew up the budget and what was needed was backed into the tax rate either by raising the rate or raising the assessed value of property. I do recall the Supt. having conversations with the county administrative office.
The weblink Diane provided in Scam 1 also had a link to another website with links to Youtube video’s. I haven’t watched them all.
I was reading the comments posted and it isn’t just IL where people are being crushed with property taxes. One comment reply to someone elderly it seemed told them to find someplace, downsize and just leave. Take your money and invest it. Yesterday I watched numerous Youtube video’s on homes in Arizonia. I asked myself why do I need a 3 bedroom home and 3 acres of ground to mow. Sell it any buy a modular home in AZ for way less and get out of IL. What I haven’t figureed out is the numerous availability of homes in AZ. One article I read many people from Canada were in AZ for the winter and because of the exchange rate and immigration laws they are leaving.
Property Tax increase is 100 % due to the Democrat controlled County Board. Next year’s Tax Bill will increase even more. If you want a lower tax bill for 2027 you better vote for Republicans at the county level in the 2026 election !