A press release from State Rep. David McSweeney:

McSweeney Advances Property Tax Levy Freeze Legislation

SPRINGFIELD – A key piece of tax relief legislation sponsored by State Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) aimed at giving property tax payers a bit of relief advanced today through the Illinois House Counties and Townships Committee today by a 4-1 vote.

“Illinois has more than 7,000 units of local government. That is 7,000 different taxing bodies taking funds from the wallets of hard-working Illinoisans,” McSweeney said.

“My one year suspension for 2015 of township general fund tax levy increases would give local taxpayers a small bit of stability while coping with the continually fluctuating housing market.”

House Bill 5311 would institute a one-year freeze on township general fund tax levies in townships which have populations of less than 100,000 and are in counties subject to the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, such as Cook, Kane, Lake and McHenry.

“Every day we hear more and more talk from Springfield about raising this tax or that tax,” McSweeney said.

“With the movement of this bill, we can finally tell our constituents that there is a real tax relief proposal on the horizon.”

The bill now heads to the House floor for consideration.

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Actually, the press release is incorrect with it says McSweeney’s bill calls for a freeze in the Town Fund’s “levy.”

It is better than that.

It calls for a freeze in the “extension.”

The “extension” is the amount (minus a very, very small amount) which a tax district collects. If one freezes the “extension,” it means that the district will get no more money next year than it got this year.

The “levy,” on the other hand, is the amount requested to be collected. If the levy this year, for instance, was cut back by the Property Tax Cap, but the levy asked, say, for 5% more than was extended (collected, minus a very, very small amount), next year’s levy could be the same as this year’s, but still result in an increase in the amount collected.

Complicated, but showing that freezing the levy means virtually nothing in year two, if the district over levied in year one.

Note also, this bill does not affect the Township Road Commissioners’ budgets.

In Algonquin Township the Town Fund this year was pegged at the level of last year’s collections, but the Road Fund was increased by the maximum amount allowed by the Real Estate Tax Cap.