McSweeney Introduces Property Tax Freeze Bill Again

A press release from State Rep. David McSweeney:

Rep. David McSweeney Calls for Permanently Reducing Property Taxes

Cary, IL – State Representative David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) says Illinois immediately needs a permanent property tax cut, which is why he has again introduced a measure to permanently freeze property taxes in Illinois.

McSweeney also supports government consolidation measures that will help reduce property taxes.

David McSweeney

“Illinois now has the highest property taxes in the country,” McSweeney said.

“We cannot afford to keep seeing property taxes increase year after year.

“The time has come to permanently freeze property taxes in Illinois.”

According to a CoreLogic report released last year, Illinois now has the highest property taxes in the country. Additionally, nearly 115,000 people left Illinois from July 2015 to July 2016 – in large part due to the high taxes here in Illinois.

“I have heard from many of my constituents who tell me they are either thinking about leaving or already have made plans to leave Illinois because of the ridiculously high property taxes they have to pay,” McSweeney said.

“The Legislature cannot continue to ignore the negative impact that rising property taxes are having on our state.”

House Bill 358 permanently freezes property tax rates in Illinois for all units of government beginning in tax year 2017.

Property taxes could only be increased by a voter referendum.

Similar legislation (HB6630) passed the House during the lame duck session of the Legislature earlier this month.

McSweeney was a lead co-sponsor of the legislation, which received 76 votes in the House

“It is time for the General Assembly to finally enact a permanent property tax freeze,” McSweeney said.

“Property tax rates are hurting working families and our senior citizens. They need relief and that is what this legislation will provide. Either we pass a permanent property tax freeze or we will see more and more of our residents continue to leave Illinois.”

House Bill 358 has been introduced and awaits assignment to a legislative committee.


Comments

McSweeney Introduces Property Tax Freeze Bill Again — 10 Comments

  1. Ah, to dream the impossible dream …

    good luck with that, Mr. McSweeney.

  2. Pam, Dan, and floor leader Karen should be getting phone calls, emails, and Facebook posts in support of this legislation, as it passed once already in the house.

    The impossible dream could be reality, don’t blow it by being negative of just as bad complacent.

    If you know of a better way that is realistic, lets hear it.

  3. Its interesting to extrapolate what things would look like after several years of freezes.

    I think most taxing bodies (i.e. Villages, Counties, Park districts, Libraries, etc.) can modify their spending to live in an environment of no levy growth.

    However, given that school districts are the most reliant on property taxes to fund operations (usually 75+%), I think you’ll see deficits almost immediately in many districts.

    School boards are reluctant to implement operating expense reductions to match revenues combined with long-term labor contracts which carry guaranteed salary increases over 3% and most districts will quickly find themselves with an unsustainable financial structure.

    If the legislature further compounds the problem by passing legislation to modify school funding resulting in a re-distribution of funding away from suburban districts and into Chicago and downstate districts, you’ll find very few districts able to keep their head above water.

    And finally, if the legislature pushes more cost onto the districts to prop up the massively unfunded pension funds, you would be hard-pressed to find anybody that wouldn’t be running in the red.

    Its not hard to envisage a scenario 4-5 years from now when a voter looks at their ballot and finds 7-10 referenda for their consideration from each taxing body, each asking for a tax increase.

    (The County wants 3%, the school district wants 4%, the village wants 2%, Park district wants 5%…etc.)

    How is the average voter supposed to effectively evaluate the merits of each request and vote appropriately?

  4. Why make excuses for not paying attention, teachers don’t accept them in their classrooms?

    Of course life will change, life isn’t stagnate my friend.

  5. HB6630 did have one short coming, it required only a simple majority to pass raising taxes.

    Simple majority votes, as the wind blows nonsense in Congress and the IL Assemble got us in big debt.

    A 2/3 majority should be written into the new legislation HB358, which would make it even harder to raise taxes.

    Yet taxes raises aren’t impossible with that greater demand, Cary D26 last referendum had just over 67% of the vote.

    A solid majority means allot!

  6. All this talk about freezing taxes is total hogwash!!!

    There are ten bills tied together in Springfield which, if they all pass, result in increasing income taxes and some other revenue increase which will drive more JOBS out of this State!

    Every so called tax freeze proposal is a distraction!

    The problem is the spending!!

    The solution is NOT to freeze one tax or another tax! The public sector suckers will simply come up with new revenue streams!!

    The solution is to quit funding programs we, the taxpayers cannot support!

    Where is legislation to place on the ballot public sector pension revisions in our Constitution?

    Where is the legislation rolling back prevailing wage laws?

    Where is the legislation creating Right to Work in this State?

    You have a lot of grandstanding in Springfield (and in this County) but you do not have enough elected officials with the required dedication to the residents to stand up for reality!!

  7. This legislation calls for a levy freeze, that is controlling spending.

    IMO reducing what they already spend is unrealistic, parents with kids in school will never allow that to happen.

  8. House Bill 358 permanently freezes property tax rates in Illinois for all units of government beginning in tax year 2017.

    I think this would be a step in the right direction however, there is still many steps to fix the financial death spiral Illinois is currently facing.

    Myself I am terrified of my tax assessor.

    I live in the McHenry township under the Mary Mahady regime and she actually told me that most people in McHenry County are UNDER assessed although we are the highest taxed county in the country just about.

    At a point I thought that if I were to fight my property taxes and get them to about where the should be in accordance to the Illinois Statutes

    (I am not saying the property taxes are at a reasonable range by any means! I am saying as what they should not be in accordance to Illinois Law.)

    I have fought my taxes every year for the last 6 years and every time the assessor throws in extra compatibles that have very different features than mine including some of them being 70 to 80 year newer than mine.

    Not only is it bad enough that our taxes are higher than they should be, they are not even fair about the amount they assess them.

    My name is Terry Pounds and I am a local Realtor in the McHenry County Area and I am seeing many properties listed at low prices because the property taxes are $10k to $14k.

    The homes range in conditions but the properties sit there stagnant as no one can qualify for a loan to buy the homes as the banks only lend on the actual value of the homes.

    The the property tax payment per month many times exceeds the mortgage value by over 50 percent or more and this is completely insane.

    I don’t know about you guys but I have lost my sense of home ownership and I currently pay over $1000.00 a month to live in my home and that is just the property taxes alone.

    Furthermore, people are afraid to buy the home as they are actually afraid of the tax bill that comes with the property and the hell or fire that the local tax assessor may rain down on them once they buy the home.

    There is no guarantee that tax assessor would lower the assessed value even is they bought it for a price less than the assessed value.

    If you are currently thinking of fighting your property taxes please contact me and I would be happy to run a free market analysis on your homes.

    I will give you a free consultation of what steps you could take to bring some relief to your tax bill.

    Or if you just had enough and you are thinking of moving out of Illinois like tens of thousands of others Illinois residents are planning or doing, I can assist you with that as well.

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