While the American Dream is to own your family home, the Illinois nightmare is the loss of your home and/or its value because of an excessive and at times corrupt property tax system. The taxes are excessive and the assessment/appeal process can be corrupt. The U.S. Census now reports that the average income for Illinois workers grew 7% from 2008-2015. During that same period, the real property tax burden rose 38%. When property taxes grow this much faster than our paychecks, if we do not all eventually lose our homes, we will most likely experience a loss in home value.
Excessive property taxation in Illinois means far fewer people will consider buying a home in Illinois or spend money to maintain or improve their home. Unless we fix this inequity now, Illinois citizens will continue to look to other states where they can buy a home and pass the equity of their life’s work to the children they raised in that home. We need to relieve Illinois residents of their excessive property tax burden. There are a number of ways to do it and I running for State Representative to provide this relief. Too many times on the campaign trail I heard that homeowners are leaving the State because they are done paying the taxes levied in Illinois. If we cannot accomplish this goal by reducing units of government and stopping and/or undoing unfunded mandates, we will need to establish a new property tax rate system that limits annual property tax bills to a very small percentage of the actual market value of our homes. Unless we drastically lower our property taxes, Illinois will continue to spiral downward resulting in few businesses, fewer jobs and lower population. Join me in the fight – not only to save taxpayers money, but to save our State!
