By: Diane Benjamin
In Illinois you can’t have a nice home without being taxed into selling and leaving the state. This house in NOT in Hawthorne Hills, homes there are even worse:
This is an increase of 42% in 10 years. The people most responsible are elected in local elections few bother to vote in.
The State doesn’t set tax rates. School districts, cities, the county, the airport, libraries, the Water Reclamations District etc tell the County how much they want to collect. Greedy elected people are stealing your money.
Elections have consequences, not voting has even more.
Republican State House Representative Mike Coffey was a Co Sponsor of the House side of the Chicago Bears Bail out Bill. It literally will tax the middle class though there Property taxes to Bail out the CHICAGO BEARS. His Springfield Restaurant Saputos is right in the middle of the MEGA PROJECT IN DOWNTOWN SPRINGFIELD and he stands to make a WINDFALL OF CASH. Thank you from STATE REPRESENTATIVE MIKE COFFEY for bailing out BILLIONAIRES. You will soon own Nothing and be happy. coffey@ilhousegop.org
IlGOP wants $200 a seat for their red gala featuring Nick Shirley. No thanks
Yes, absolutely right that people, a large percentage of them a significant tax base, are leaving because of the taxes and because of the worthless ILGOP representation. 3 – 4 months ago I wrote
to my State Senator and voiced my opinion about the thousands of ChiCom students enrolled at the University of Illinois. I finally got a response from her and it was written as if a leftist had composed it. Basically the response said, in so many words, that there was nothing to see there, move along.
U of I will never give up that tuition cash cow, up to 3 times as much as in-state tuition. They will fight tooth and nail for it and their local representative and senator will go along with it, regardless of the letter behind their name.
The worst part is that they let in international and even out of state students over in state students because of the tuition. In some cases, these are students who aren’t as qualified as in-state students.
U of I also likely doesn’t care that a surprising percentage of their Chinese students are spies for the CCP and get their foreign education paid by the Chinese government in return for coming back and sharing U S. technology and development in various disciplines and working the rest of their lives for the CCP to undermine America. This is not just a problem at the U of I but just about any research university in America.
Actually that table shows a 42% increase in just 3 years. The property taxes didn’t change from 2016 to 2022. This is the pattern across the county: once the severe and continuing housing supply crunch kicked in, assessed values skyrocketed along with sale prices. Governments have gleefully taken most of that assessed value increase to spend like drunken sailors. During this 10 year period, both the county/cities and the government schools raised local sales taxes by a combined 30%. Don’t forget, in 2017, the State of Illinois raised personal income tax by 32% and corporate rate by 33%.
Government School boards building new schools while their enrollment drops by double digit percentages (meanwhile, reading/math scores dropped).
Government union contracts are obediently approved with little push back by elected officials in negotiations.
Government employee counts increasing much faster than the local population growth.
Pet building projects no one but politicians wants, tax cuts for big business.
Major library renovations, but patrons and book checkouts remain well below pre-covid levels.
Meanwhile, the radical liberals took over both city councils and the county board.
All of this while the population in McLean county has remained roughly flat for 10 years (172,000). But did anyone catch in that WGLT article a few weeks ago that local leftist immigration “non-partisan” groups estimate that McLean county now has 10,000 “residents” who only speak Spanish?
Whose fault? The 80%+ who ignore local elections.
It was all the above plus more for me and my wife. The taxes you pay for what you get for services in return was an easy calculation for us. We now pay half of what we were paying in Illinois and BN. We were also disgusted with the people and how you couldn’t trust a soul that wasn’t a member of your family. There are nasty people everywhere but there shouldn’t be that much of a difference in another community 170 miles away but so far our experiences say different. The same names control everything in BN and have for generations. Their are little to no job options because the local leadership has always refused to diversify the economy unless their name is on it or they get a kickback out of it. Being satisfied for years because State Farm was there and not being pro active in real business attraction has now reared its ugly head. Chicago area personalities and politics have also infiltrated the area and with it, Chicago type attitudes and problems. BN could have been a downstate shining star but there was never any real community leadership or the will to make it happen. That said, I found most there quite lazy and not loaded with a lot of ambition to improve the lives of the community, let alone their own. What you see now is what you get.
Good article and good comments. The state sets all the rules and guidelines for the property tax system in Illinois. They tell County assessors what they can and cannot do. They set the appeal process and are the final say. They set all the exemption amounts and rules. (Cook County gets a $10,000 homestead exemption and we get only $6000). The State allowed taxing bodies to have a separate line item for pensions. Now at least a half dozen do that.
Local taxing bodies have taken FULL advantage of the system and a runaway real estate market to capture HUGE increases in revenue for the past 5+ years with little accountability to local taxpayers.
JB would have you believe that the State has no role in all of this.
In the past several years, GOP members of the State legislature have presented numerous proposed bills that would have provided meaningful property tax relief. Some backed by a few Democrats. Absolutely NONE of these bills have been allowed to advance under the watchful eye of the Democrat Supermajority or JB. They want local property owners to finance schools, etc. so they can use state funds to fund all their pet projects like “green energy” and illegal aliens. People do not stay and fight. They put a “for sale” sign in their yard and 72 hours later it sells for more than the asking price and they are gone out of state! Tax reform begins at the State level and it will NEVER happen with JB! Way past time for a new Governor in Illinois!
This isn’t meant to be a wise guy response but “staying and fighting” for a community that doesn’t care about its own preservation is a fools errand. It’s also not worth it when most people you have known at work and outside of it continually stabbed you in the back and outright lied to you about just about everything. My house sold in 24 hours at the stated price although I could have made more if I had wanted to be a jerk like most people in BN.
And 55-65% of our property tax money goes to our failing schools.
Most people can’t afford to send their kids to private schools or are unable to home school. Higher taxes have trapped them.
Most people can’t afford to pick up and leave the state or they choose to suffer with their children rather than leave them alone. Higher taxes have trapped them too.
So here we sit while the billionare governor’s party and our local socialist officials grin and turn up the tax-and-spend heat hoping the frog in the pot of water won’t notice.
And the kicker is that the stupid frog does have absolute and immediate power over these jokers. But that would take a little effort, like getting off their warm, wet tush, walking down the street and voting every couple of years. Too much to ask? OK then, more heat is on the way.
In the words of Lincoln:
“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.”
For everyone that leaves there are plenty more that wish they could. Some have an elderly parent, are in poor health themselves or have other obligations here. But you can be sure the advice given to their kids is: Get out of Hellinois.
At the rate of increase I am seeing within a few years mine will approah $10K. That equates to almost $830 a month just to live in my home I own. I’m going to have to do something and I see moving the only option. I have a buyer but the hold up is finding a place to move to.
If there was a way to sell it to them for $25K and they purchase the out of state property and and after closing they transfer the out of state home to me. Someone told me the selling price becomes the new assessed value. I mean royally give it to the taxing bodies up the rear.
I was talking to someone from Maroa/Forsyth and the school district there did the same as Heyworth. Spent a million dollar+ to put in an astro turf football field. Are you kidding me… What are we running a professional NFL football team? All school districts spending is totally out of control. Then on top of that the taxpayers get the shaft to pay for their pension.
100 percent right- smart well rounded taxpayers realize this. Not elitist legacy Central Illinois grads and families funnelling money and jobs and now embedded in every leadership role in big orgs and NFPs.
They done even understand the system. Basically pyramid schemes that we are the test rats for and financiers.
Ught truth