The Sun-Times announced the passage of Jack Franks' Tax Cap bill.
The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) has reversed the House defeat of his bill to prevent local tax districts from raising the tax take when assessed valuation is not growing…regardless of the increase in the Consumer Price Index.
Only voter approval could overcome the mew tax cap rule
While last time around he only got 34 votes, this time the bill garnered 74 votes.
Locally, the taxpayer-financed McHenry County Council for Governments sent the following email of opposition Monday night:
Good Evening,
Attached is a letter we have drafted to Rep. Bradley, requesting his “No” vote on Representative Franks’ PTELL bill. This same letter will be amended to be addressed to all members of the House Revenue and Finance Committee.
We request your consideration of including member Mayor’s, President’s, County Board Chairman Koehler and Township Supervisor’s signature on this letter. If you agree, please e-mail an electronic version of your signature to me at your earliest convenience.
As of this evening, Rep. Franks’ bill HB4608 is still in the House Rules Committee. However, there is a good chance it could be assigned to the Revenue and Finance Committee this week or early next week. Therefore, we request that you provide your signature, if you wish to include it, as soon as possible.
I will be in Springfield this week and will provide updates as they occur. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or need more information.
Best regards,
Anna
The bill that passed was Senate Bill 2073.
If you like to express your opinion about tax dollars being used to lobby against the best interest of taxpayers, here are some email addresses that might be useful:
amoeller@mchenrycountycog.org
To: a.osten@foxrivergrove.org; williamganek@algonquin.org; robby723@comcast.net; bsager@woodstockil.gov; peterson@village.lakewood.il.
There will be, of course, a bitter fight between the tax eaters and the taxpayers in the Illinois Senate.
Below is the House Roll Call:
Click to enlarge this House Roll Call of Senate Bill 2073, now a Tax Cap bill.
From the roll call you can get an idea of where the first priorities of these legislators are.
When your personal financial life is in ruins, attack another.
The major problem in our UNITS of government is the State – NOT local units.
Is there a problem with property taxes? YES.
Township Assessors are being forced to live with the three year sales averaging while Property Tax Appeal Boards use current year.
If Jack Franks was serious about ‘fixing’ property taxes, he would fix this.
He would RUSH through a bill to order Township Assessors to use current year sales statistics in revaluing property.
Now, I want someone to tell me how are we going to get our culverts cleaned out, the road sides mowed, the roads plowed, receive good fire and police protection plus other necessary LOCALLY provided services after the State pushes the Education Pension Liability down to local property taxes?
Hopefully we still have adequate ‘sane’ thinking politicians in the Senate to defeat this bill which will have many ‘unintended consequences’ just like the so-called ‘drano’ bill.
http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2012/02/21/gaffney-et-al-complain-about-dems-plan-to-shift-teacher-pension-burden-to-property-taxpayers/
Oldest trick in the book?
Property values drop, properties owners should not be subject to increased taxes. That’s a simple concept.
Every citizen can appeal assessed property value based on local sales at no cost to them every year. Making a law to requiring township assessors do that won’t fix the problem if the tax rates rise beyond the savings of the re-assessed value it’s moot.
Road sides plowed? Locally provided services? You can say good bye to all of those things anyway when tax rates climb higher than people can afford who are already underwater. What happens when taxes become too high and homeowners don’t pay those?
Oldest trick in the book? Give me a break.
C’mon… what does the cost of plowing a road or educating a child have to do with the price of a home?
Does YOUR salary or the price of gasoline track the cost of your home?
Of course not.
Does it cost less to educate a student from a $100,000 home than it does from a $1,000,000 home?
Nope.
The whole reason PTELL came into existence it to decouple the tax levy from property values.
Now that the values are dropping, these bills want it both ways.
Populist bunk.