The underutilized Woodstock North High School is one of the reasons District 200’s tax burden is so high.
On June 16th McHenry County Blog turned a comment about the overpowering property tax burden in Woodstock’s Unit School District 200 into an article.
This week another commenter, named Eva, shares the two cents she contemplates having left after paying her real estate tax bill next year:
I feel absolutely trapped.
I’m paying $6800/yr in property taxes for an 1867 sq ft home in District 200, just got my assessment which raised the value by 11.24% so at a minimum I’ll be paying $764/yr more and THAT’s if they don’t raise the rates.
Who the heck would want to buy a house with that kind of tax rate?
Eva, join the “Great Exodus From Tax Tyranny” and leave Illinois
while you still can.
This state will never recover, so why keep feeding the Beast ?
Would be helpful to know the Fair Cash Value and Net Taxable Value also.
The worst is yet to come.
Kick the can, hide and seek, catch me if you can, only works for so long.
Inflation and interest only stays very low for so long.
Bond Debt + Pension Debt + Retiree Healthcare are going to relentlessly pursue more taxes.
It’s no joking matter that every taxing district needs organized counter to the public sector unions, administration and management, special interest groups, and others who personally and politically profit from taxes.
But that’s exactly her point.
How can she sell her house?
Someone has to be willing to take on an additional $600 in monthly payment.
Home ownership is a fraud.
Why is there Freddie and Fannie? T
o get and keep us surfs, paying the cost of government, under the guise of obtaining, the so called American Dream.
The state can recover but it takes effort.
Public Enemy #1 is the pension sentence added to the Illinois State constitution on December 15, 1970.
“Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.”
That sentence as interpreted by the Illinois Supreme Court means any and all pension benefit hikes and retiree healthcare benefit hikes passed by State Senators and State Representatives, and approved by Governors, cannot be clawed back if they are deemed unaffordable, irregardless of how much situations and the economy changes.
The result was trickery, deceit, and tyranny.
The result of the sentence is that pensions and retiree benefits were hiked.
The result was not that the pensions and retiree healthcare benefits became better funded.
The result was salary and current benefit hikes, money which partially came from shorting pension and retiree healthcare contributions.
Hiking salary, hikes the pension, worsening the underfunding of the pension fund.
That pension sentence and the resulting actions by the Illinois General Assembly and Governors is an example of government at its worst.
Hundreds of pension and retiree healthcare hikes have been passed by State Senators, State Representatives, and Governors since that sentence was added to the Illinois State Constitution.
Which means the majority of State Representatives and Senators, and Governors, approved the hikes.
The best course of action is to entirely repeal the pension sentence via constitutional amendment.
The steps to do so are:
1) A House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment (HJRCA) or Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment (SJRCA) is passed by the Illinois General Assembly (State Representatives and State Senators).
2) The Governor signs the HJRCA or SJRCA.
3) The Amendment is placed on an election ballot.
4) Voters approve the ballot.
Before all that, voters need to understand what happened so they will be willing to vote for the amendment.
“I’m paying $6800/yr in property taxes for an 1,867 sq ft home…”
$6,800 / 1,867 = $3.64 Annual Taxes Per Square Foot of Home.
There are higher prices than that in McHenry, Lake, and DuPage.
Maybe other counties too.
What’s your taxes per square foot of home?
By the way just because EAV goes up doesn’t necessarily mean your taxes will go up the same percent.
The taxing district extension (total amount of taxes each taxing district is entitled to collect) and the movement of all other EAV in the taxing districts also play a role.
Real estate taxes are a scam and should be abolished.
Period.
No one owns anything while the government holds this illegal toll over everyone’s head.
Look at the total mess this has caused by instituting taxing district personnel to make sure that everyone feels the pain.
I wonder if she appealed her assessment?
What are you saying?
She should be happy cause it could be worse?
Geez.
I agree, for once, with Cindy that real estate taxes should be abolished.
Also when any school or government entity wants to build another building or addition it should be voted on by public.
They build these beautiful buildings, and a few years later say enrollment has declined so we must sell it at a loss.
I don’t think they want to open up the constitution because they would also open up the flat income tax rate in Illinois which allows richer people to pay less of their money earned than middle class or poor do.
I’m paying 3.32 a sqft, not accounting for a 4 car garage on acre of land.
Property taxes should go the way of the buggy whip in favor of a county wide income tax to pay for local services.
Our houses are money pits, income pays the bills.
The schools are a monopoly racket operating under protection of the Illinois General Assembly and Governors.
They hike taxes by comparing themselves to each other in the state of Illinois.
The salaries, benefits, cost of trades labor, etc. is lower just by crossing an invisible state line into Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri.
Parents in 99% of the state have zero choice where their child can be educated unless they want to pay out of pocket costs over and above what they already pay in property, income, sales, and other taxes to the public school monopoly.
The rules were rigged by the Illinois General Assembly and Governors to benefit organized labor, politicians, and other special interests.
woodstock taxes are above 4% of home value.
$6800/.04= $170,000.
Woodstock city residents pay 4.6% of home value.
That is, $9200 property tax on a $200,000 home.
Other communities in the county aren’t as bad…yet.
Who cares what the tax is per square foot!
You are missing the point here.
It’s should be totally illegal.
It is definitely immoral.
Total usurpation of your property by criminals is something wrong and evil; and it doesn’t matter if it is equally distributed.
Being forced to rent your own property is actually extortion by the government.
Just try not paying the rent!
Illinois Policy Institute
Illinois Homeowners Pay the Second-Highest Property Taxes in the U.S.
by Michael Lucci
August 19, 2015
http://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-homeowners-pay-the-second-highest-property-taxes-in-the-u-s
Woodford Tax Facts
A History of Property Taxes in Illinois
February 19, 2007
http://woodfordtaxfacts.blogspot.com/2007/02/history-of-property-taxes-in-illinois.html
Taxes per square foot are an important ratio to know, for comparison purposes to other communities.
Anyone with a home for sale must compete for buyers with other communities which offer lower tax rates.
Susan?
Do you understand what the real situation is here?
In days gone-by your equations might have mattered.
I hope all your stats comfort you in the days to come when all Hell breaks loose.
May God bless you for your efforts, but I believe you are at least thirty years too late.
Woodstock cannot compete for homebuyers when its tax rate (correlated to tax-per-square-foot)is 4.6% of total home value.
In America, national average property tax rate is 1.5%
In Indiana, a homeowner must only pay 1% of total home value property tax.
SO Woodstock home values can only go lower and lower in an effort to find buyers.
The main direct pensions costs that drive up property taxes are:
1. Downstate Police – Article 3 in the Illinois Pension Code.
2. Downstate Fire – Article 4 in the Illinois Pension Code.
3. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) – Article 7 in the Illinois Pension Code.
“Downstate” in the case of Illinois pensions means police and fire pension funds outside Chicago.
The “Pension” line item on a property tax bill is for the employer contribution to the IMRF pension fund.
The employer contributions to the Downstate Police and Downstate Fire pension funds are not a line item on property tax bills, rather, are included in the line item for the municipality or fire protection district.
Fire departments are included in the municipality line item on the property tax bill, whereas fire protection districts are a separate line item.
Many Downstate police and fire pension funds are grossly underfunded.
Municipalities and Fire Protection Districts do not do a good job of informing taxpayers of the funding status of downstate police and fire pension funds.
The funding status of downstate police and fire pension funds can be found in the annual reports of the municipalities and fire protection districts.
The funding status of downstate police and fire pension funds can also be found in two reports released by the Commission for Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) which have been released every 2 years for the past several years:
1. Report on the Financial Condition of the Downstate Police and Fire Pension Funds in Illinois, May 2015
2. Fiscal Analysis of the Downstate Police & Downstate Fire Pension Funds in Illinois, February 2015
Communities with lower populations do not have a Downstate Police and/or Downstate Fire Pension Fund, rather their police and/or fire is in IMRF.
The funding status of IMRF is better than most Downstate Police and Fire Pension Funds, mainly due to the fact that state statute forces the municipality to make close to a full annual pension contribution (there were some exceptions made in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown).
However, Police and Fire are better paid than the average municipal employee, and IMRF pension benefits are not as generous as Downstate Police and Fire pension benefits, both of which hike the annual employer pension contribution to the pension fund.
The other pension funds for which McHenry County Residents fund come from state tax revenues (not property tax revenues), the exception of a small employer contribution (.58% which is a little over 1/2 of 1%) from school districts and the Regional Office of Education, to the Teacher and Administrator pension fund (TRS).
Those other pension funds are:
These first five are referred to as the five state pension funds:
General Assembly Retirement System (GARS) – for State Reps & Senators – Article 2 of the Illinois Pension Code
Judges Retirement System (JRS) – Article 18 of the Illinois Pension Code
State Employees Retirement System (SERS) – Article 14 of the Illinois Pension Code
State University Retirement System (SURS) – Article 15 of the Illinois Pension Code
Teachers Retirement System of Illinois (TRS) – for teachers and administrators – Article 16 of the IL Pension Code
Those are the 5 “state” pension funds.
The last pension fund which McHenry County residents help fund is the RTA Pension Fund, which includes Metra suburban rail and PACE suburban bus, and is included in Article 22 of the Illinois Pension Code along with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).
Chicago and Cook County have 10 pension funds including CTA.
Public sector pensions are a major component of property and income taxes.
The unfunded liability (IOU) of the pension funds is a major future tax hike found in many of the pension funds.
The retiree healthcare funds are an additional story.
Cindy, you are talking about private matters that in my opinion are between each individual and his own conscience.
This is a public forum to discuss issues of public policy.
You may certainly say whatever you like but you must understand that those who wish to discuss proactive observations and solutions for the here-and-now do not want to engage in any deviation from that topic.
$3.57 per Sq/ft – LITH District 155 – anyone want to bid on some CL-south Bleachers 🙂
Tax Breakdown by %
MCHENRY COUNTY 7.56%
MCHENRY COUNTY PENSION 1.33%
MCHENRY CO CONSV 2.21%
COLLEGE DISTRICT 528 MCC 3.46%
COLLEGE DISTRICT 528 MCC PENSION 0.01%
SCHOOL DIST 47 34.17%
SCHOOL DIST 47 PENSION 2.09%
SCHOOL DIST 155 23.38%
SCHOOL DIST 155 PENSION 0.74%
ALG LITH FIRE DIST 6.84%
ALG LITH FIRE DIST PENSION 0.95%
ALGONQUIN LIBRARY 4.56%
ALGONQUIN LIBRARY PENSION 0.31%
LITH SANITARY DIST 0.104954 .20%
LITH SANITARY DIST PENSION 0.20%
LITH SSA 1.60%
ALGONQUIN TOWNSHIP 0.66%
ALGONQN TWP RD & BR 1.42%
ALGONQN TWP RD & BR PENSION 0.07%
LAKE IN THE HILLS VILLAGE 4.48%
LAKE IN THE HILLS VILLAGE PENSION 3.15%
LITH: it is most helpful to compa=re “Rate” ( the column to the left of “Perccent” on tax bill)
Here is rural Woodstock Rate for 2014 taxes paid in 2015:
*rate is tax rate applied to EAV (equalized assessed value) which is equal to 1/3 of fair market value minus homestead exemption and others if applicable.
MCHENRY COUNTY .970598
MCHENRY COUNTY PENSION .170622
MCHENRY CO CONSV .283996
COLLEGE DISTRICT 528 MCC .444371
COLLEGE DISTRICT 528 MCC PENSION .000901
SCHOOL DIST 200 7.859881
SCHOOL DIST 200 PENSION .355416
WOODSTOCK FIRE RESCUE .810310
WOODSTOCK FIRE RESCUE PENSION .123110
RURAL WOODSTOCK LIBRARY .126660
SENECA TOWNSHIP .188840
SENECA TWP RD & BR .329510
TOTAL (PROPERTY TAX RATE CHARGED ON 1/3 OF HOME VALUE): 11.664215
(11.664215/3= 3.89% of home fair market value)
Susan, besides being wrong about this being a public forum…
It’s actually Cal’s blog.
Only by his grace are you allowed to comment in here.
You sound very liberal now that you have outed yourself by intimating that I should basically shut up.
Just lost a lot of respect for all your hard work on these issues.
that was not my intention.
I was explaining why I refuse to engage in off-topic discussions.
I would never tell anyone to shut up.
It isn’t productive.
Percent of property taxes devoted to public elementary & high schools (there’s a push for all day kindergarten, increasing pre-kindergarten enrollment, and increasing early childhood for at risk children).
LITH:
SCHOOL DIST 47 34.17%
SCHOOL DIST 47 PENSION 2.09%
SCHOOL DIST 155 23.38%
SCHOOL DIST 155 PENSION 0.74%
Total: 60.38%
Woodstock Rural:
SCHOOL DIST 200 7.859881
SCHOOL DIST 200 PENSION .355416
Total: 8.215297
8.215297/11.664215 = 70.43%
W