United Van Lines pulled out from a Crystal Lake home for an out-of-state move.
Here’s a comment from Realtor Ted that just popped up under a September article about people moving out of Illinois:
I am a real estate agent, and can sadly but confidently report that the tax and fiscal condition of this state are driving many good, hard-working individuals and families out of Illinois.
Illinois is 2nd only to New York in the exodus of its residents.
10%, 20% and even 30% annual increases in property taxes, while home values stagnate, are not uncommon.
I have seen these increases drive homeowners out of what they had planned to be their dream homes.
What’s more, there is hardly a neighborhood that has not watched as abandoned foreclosed homes languish and decay, negatively impacting the neighborhood, and even more, the pride of ownership that was once the lynchpin of the American dream.
Something very valuable is being lost in all of this.
Illinois is a wonderful place to live.
But due to the convoluted, obfuscated and irresponsible manner by which the system works, most residents, already overwhelmed trying to keep up, are not equipped to effectively respond.
As another blogger noted the residents are not organized to confront the problem.
And why should they be?
Is that not the job of the elected officials?
The wise, hard working resident who chooses to move to a better place has not so much left the state, as the state has left them.
Left out as a reason for moving is the cold weather. One could buy a one-way ticket to Florida on December 31st for $88.
Live in Cary, at in a modest home with a market value of around $230,000.
With my 27% increase in assessment this year, plus whatever the additional tax rate increase is going to be, I don’t think I’ll be willing to pay the amount of a new, small car every year to McHenry schools, government agencies.
Can someone please tell me what we get in Illinois that folks in Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky do NOT get?
Illinois taxes are criminal, but the public sector unions have the state’s elected officials in a full nelson.
The state is now encouraging the police to turn on their own citizens by demanding DUI quotas and dramatically increased arrest/citation rates.
The political class is now turning on American citizens and its using the police to enforce this.
It’s a disgrace.
The political class is desperate and they need more money – they see the private sector as the source.
Now that they know everyone is overtaxed, they are looking at pensions and penalty to raise money.
There is NOTHING here in Illinois that is worth staying and paying for that one cannot find elsewhere at a much lower cost.
People realize that Illinois’ woes can not and will not be turned around in their lifetime, or that of their children.
Yes, the government is attacking its citizens and in effect now being ruled under a “soft tyranny”.
More for sale signs will appear this spring as the Great Exodus from The Land Of The Scam continues unabated.
Madigan and his party are Public Enemy #1.
Obviously elected officials as a whole are not fixing the problem they created.
The elected officials as a whole made the laws and rules that created the mess.
Most of the elected officials that made the laws and rules benefit more from hiked pensions, retiree healthcare, pay, and current benefits than they pay in taxes, fees, etc.
They are elected political Robin Hoods, take from the taxpayers and give to themselves and special interests which elect them to office.
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The press is a contributor to the mess because they have not for various reasons reported how we got into this mess.
One person hit the nail on the head though.
Bill Zettler in Illinois Pension Scam.
He compared Illinois teacher and administrator pension benefits in 1970 to those in 2011.
Bingo.
What happened between 1970 and 2011 is state legislators and Governors hiked the pension benefits, even though the pension systems were already underfunded.
There were not employee and employer contribution hikes to cover the hiked benefits.
So the legislators and Governors acted like Santa Claus with a credit card.
The presents were legislative pension benefit hikes.
The taxpayers were stuck with a very big credit card bill to fund the hikes.
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Mr. Zettler chose teachers and administrators because their pension fund, Teachers Retirement System of the State of Illinois (TRS), is the biggest pension fund in Illinois.
But it’s far from the only pension fund.
There are 19 pension systems in Illinois.
Those 19 pension systems mushroom into about 674 pension funds because Downstate Police and Downstate Fire (two of the 19 pension systems) mushroom into about 657 pension funds.
Downstate in the case of those two pension systems refers to communities outside Chicago, thus Downstate includes Chicago suburbs.
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Here are the 19 biggest public sector pension systems in Illinois (there are likely a few other mass transit districts).
Chicago Fire
Chicago Laborers (LABF)
Chicago Municipal (MEABF)
Chicago Police
Chicago Park District
Chicago Public Schools
Cook County Employees
Cook County Forest Preserve
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) – Sanitary District
Downstate Police
Downstate Fire
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF)
General Assembly Retirement System (GARS)
Judges’ Retirement System (JRS)
State Employees Retirement System (SERS)
State University Retirement System (SURS)
Teachers Retirement System of the State of Illinois (TRS)
(those are referred to as the five “state” pension funds)
CTA
RTA (includes Metra and Pace)
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In addition there are retiree healthcare funds.
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17 of the those 19 pension systems (take out the mass transit pension funds) have collectively as of 2014 a $158 Billion Unfunded Liability according to the Illinois Department of Insurance Public Pension Division 2015 Biennial Report, which reported numbers through 2014, and was presented to Governor Bruce Rauner and the General Assembly on October 1, 2015.
The 17 pension systems also had $158 Billion in Assets.
Meaning the 17 pension systems were 50% funded.
$158 Billion means nothing to most people.
It is, though, a $158 Billion taxpayer IOU.
It’s the amount taxpayers owed the pension fund as of 2014.
A very significant problem with the $158 Billion shortfall in the pension systems, is investment returns were not being obtained on the $158 Billion.
Investment returns are by design the biggest contributors to a pension fund, not the employees or employer.
In a public sector defined benefit pension fund, the taxpayers are stuck with any shortfall to investment returns, not the employer or employee.
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So now there is a fight going on to determine what will be done to fix that mess.
But the vast majority of taxpayers don’t know there is a fight, don’t know the basics of the story, don’t know the history, and are not organized.
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We can compare to the old saying, we are the Federal Government and we are here to help you.
We are the state legislators, Governors, and local Government elected officials, and we are here to help you, we represent you.
You elect us, and we’ll take care of this mess for you.
Don’t worry about being organized, we are here for you.
Here is a breakdown of the $158 Billion unfunded liability for 17 of the 19 Illinois public sector pension systems (excludes the CTA & RTA/Metra/PACE pensions systems) mentioned in the above comment.
% of Unfunded Liability – Unfunded Liability FY 2014 – Fund
37% – $057,915,994,753 – TRS
16% – $024,945,296,726 – SERS
13% – $020,038,176,868 – SURS
06% – $008,978,045,654 – IMRF
05% – $008,652,221,574 – Chicago Teachers
05% – $007,986,177,865 – Chicago Police
04% – $007,145,102,707 – Cook County
04% – $006,250,391,908 – Chicago Municipal
03% – $005,187,804,166 – Downstate Police
02% – $003,620,578,225 – Downstate Fire
02% – $003,257,722,086 – Chicago Fire
01% – $001,453,264,152 – JRS
01% – $000,958,643,078 – Metropolitan Water
01% – $000,877,578,123 – Chicago Laborers
00% – $000,487,418,901 – Chicago Parks
00% – $000,266,590,010 – GARS
00% – $000,113,925,673 – Cook County Forest Preserve
100% – $158,134,932,469 – Total for all 17 pension systems
Source: Illinois Department of Insurance Public Pension Division 2015 Biennial Report (2013 – 2014).
The report is issued every 2 years (biennial).
This report covers the calendar years 2013 & 2014.
The unfunded liability is cumulative through calendar year 2014.
https://insurance2.illinois.gov/Reports/Pension/pension_biennial_report_2015.pdf
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Here is a second URL, this one to the section of the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI) website that contains a link to the 2015 Biennial reports.
https://insurance2.illinois.gov/applications/pension/default.aspx
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Here is a third URL, this one to the all (or several) IDOI reports including the 2015 Biennial report, which is filed under, “Public Pensions – Public Pensions Biennial Report.”
http://insurance2.illinois.gov/Reports/Report_Links.asp
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The report is 744 pages.
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Here is the Illinois Department of Insurance home page.
http://insurance2.illinois.gov
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Here is the path to the report from the state of Illinois home page.
http://www.Illinois.gov > Agencies > Insurance Department of > Documentation > DOI Reports > Public Pensions > Public Pensions Biennial Report > 2015
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Pensions are a major driver of hiked taxes at the state and local level.
Hiked pension benefits since 1970 are the major driver of hiked pensions.
Those pension benefits were legislatively hiked by state legislators and Governors, even though pensions were already underfunded.
That is the untold narrative.
The told narrative is the state (or employer) did not live up to its end of the bargain; the state (or employer) did not make its full contribution.
The real story is every year even though there was already an unfunded liability, meaning even though there was already a taxpayer IOU, the state legislators and Governors kept hiking the pension benefits.
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The second driver to hiked pensions is hiked salaries.
Once again, even though pensions were already underfunded, the salary hikes continued.
Salary hikes should have been kept to a minimum until pensions were fully funded.
But current workers don’t want to forego salary hikes to fund pensions for past workers.
Public sector defined benefit underfunded pensions have a whole host of problems.
“Pay To Play” is the motto of Illinois politics.
Don’t believe me ?
Just ask the evil Leprechaun Mike Madigan.
Mark above(1-3-2016) hit the nail on the head.
Bill Zettler pension research located at http://www.championnews.net is the best in Illinois.
Roughly 212 articles summarizing the pension greed and generational theft by government and public sector unions.
When a employee makes more in retirement than during the work career you have PONZI!
When the same employee receives back every dollar of their employee contribution during the first 12-18 months in retirement you have PONZI!
The maximum social security pension is about $32,400 per year.
This is chump change to a retired teacher.
Top teacher pensions are roughly $480,000 per year.
Remember there are no IL State taxes paid and these privileged people get annual 3% cost of living increases.
Not bad for 8 month work years. How many McDonald’s minimum wage workers paying 3.75% state tax does it take to pay for one $100,000(12,000 in IL) teacher pension? A BOATLOAD.
How many McDonalds workers does it take to pay for the 3% annual cost of living?
ANOTHER BOATLOAD.
Teachers are well paid.
They did not earn the pensions.
Pensions and Benefits are based on the profitability, success and generosity of the business or state employer.
Illinois is not a profitable or successful business/state.
It is certainly a generous one for the selected chosen few government and public sector unions.
Democrats changing the Illinois State Constitution in 1970 to guarantee pensions and benefits for life, to this chosen group is an example of “Disgusting Greed”!
#GenerationalTheft
#Detroitification is happening in IL.
Get out and lets leave the bill to the chosen few receiving all the benefits!!!!!!!!!
A “realtor” comments on “30%” per year increases in property taxes?
Considering that PTELL limits tax levies to annual increases of 5% or the CPI (rate of inflation), whichever is less, can the “realtor” cite specific areas where property taxes have increased 30% per year?
(Without the local VOTERS approving a tax increase REFERENDUM, that is?)
Could the problem be that the SAME people complaining about property taxes are the very voters who say “Yes” to school tax increase referendums, park district tax increase referendums, and on and on and ON?
Or do they even vote at all..?
In particular, are they voting in the LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD elections, given the fact that the schools claim SEVENTY-THREE-PERCENT of our property tax dollars..?
…and this is why I left.
I just couldn’t do it any longer.
For those who think you can’t afford to escape Illinois, the reality is that you can’t afford not to – believe me, you’ll thank yourself in just a few months time!
It is only a tax district’s total tax take that is limited by the Property Tax Cap.
Robert Williams: “Or do they even vote at all..?”
With turnouts of 15 % and less, I think the answer is obvious.
Not only do we have a lack of educated voter turnout, we have a lack of candidates!
Just look at how many offices are uncontested – specially at the state level!
Are Wheeler and Althoff the best we can put forward?
Look at the number of precincts with NO candidate for committeeman.
How many school board members actually represent the taxpayers?
Hmmm move out of state and take the same laissez faire attitude with them will only kick the can down the road.
Overwhelmingly the reason of exodus appress to be “property taxes”.
Property taxes that are local not Springfield.
Yet a small majority ever come to these taxing bodies meetings and worse yet, on average, 90% of the voters do not come out and vote in these elections for local taxing bodies.
Seems to me that we ONLY ourselves to blame.
Its time to quit hitting the “easy button”.
We only have ourselves to blame for taking our eye off of property taxes.