This won’t go over well
Monday, Aug 1, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Oy…
Three of every four property owners in Chicago have been hit with higher property taxes this year, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows — often thousands of dollars more and in some cases in the Loop and surrounding hot neighborhoods twice what they were last year.
That’s the result of a perfect storm of higher property assessments from Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $318 million tax hike, passed to shore up the city’s shaky finances and boost police and fire pension funds that for years have been shortchanged.
Eighteen of the city’s 50 aldermen — including Ald. Patrick O’Connor, the mayor’s City Council floor leader who rounded up the votes to pass the tax increase last fall — staved off the hefty tax hikes, shifting a total of $19,484 in taxes to other property owners. Those aldermen, including several whose wards have seen real estate prices skyrocket, did that by convincing Berrios or the Cook County Board of Review to lower the estimated value of their homes or apartments.
Five of those aldermen — including four who voted against the tax hike — owe less than they did last year, even as most of their constituents pay more, the Sun-Times found in an analysis of the 882,965 tax bills sent to Chicago landowners. Monday is the deadline to pay.
The city really needs to change its assessment system. I mean, c’mon, man. Even if every change was accurate and fair, this just stinks.
* And it’s gonna get worse…
The city has locked into increases of at least $225 million over the next three years, while CPS is planning to increase taxes by an additional $250 million for teacher pension funding next year. That’s $475 million total over the next three years.
* Press release…
Governor Rauner issued the following statement as many homeowners throughout Illinois face a deadline today to pay property taxes:
“Illinois residents are being hit with record property tax increases in communities all around the state even though they already pay the highest property taxes in the nation.
“People are literally being driven from their homes by the failure of the General Assembly to enact the reforms that would stop this unnecessary destruction of the American Dream.
“I think every day about the moms and dads who are cutting important things from their family budgets, from summer vacations to school activities to youth sports to tutoring and more. Parents are forced into tough choices because the leaders in Springfield have failed once again.
“Since 1990 property taxes have risen 3.3 times faster than Illinois median household incomes. Today, in many communities, particularly the south Cook County suburbs, property taxes now exceed mortgage payments.
“My proposals will stop the harm out-of-control property tax increases cause families and businesses. When I talk to people throughout Illinois, they tell me that they feel they have lost control of their own property and are simply renting it from the government. That is not fair. We must pass the reforms I have outlined to rein in and then lower property taxes.”
- Big Muddy - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:41 pm:
Sorry, I have exactly ZERO sympathy for Chicago having to raise taxes. NONE. Time they start paying for their complete mismanagement of government over the past 60 years.
- Ron - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:44 pm:
Pensions have an insatiable thirst for tax dollar.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:46 pm:
Pensions are constitutionally protected. Get over it.
Chicago needs a better, fairer, and more aligned property taxing platform.
Ending prevailing wage and eliminating collective bargaining aren’t part of that platform.
- AC - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:47 pm:
“My proposals will stop the harm out-of-control property tax increases cause families and businesses.” [citation needed]
Seriously, it’s frustrating watch Rauner continue to make the same claims about the effectiveness of his proposals without any evidence that they’d work.
- TinyDancer(FKA Sue) - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:48 pm:
“….recent tax increases, which Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed through the City Council and Chicago Board of Education last year to…..”give financially struggling CPS more money to pay for construction projects.”
Tax hike for CPS construction projects?…….
perhaps Rahm shouldn’t have shut down those 50 schools.
- RNUG - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:49 pm:
Property taxes are out of control primarily because the State does not properly support the schools.
If Rauner were to double the income tax so he could support the schools, cut the property tax in half, and institute a cap that the property tax can not rise faster than the federal CPI AND the total property tax can not exceed either 1% or 2% of the market value of the home, I could support that.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:50 pm:
Big Muddy - I’d say the same thing about the great state of Illinois.
- JS Mill - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:51 pm:
=Pensions have an insatiable thirst for tax dollar. =
Just a silly statement.
The bulk of the expense is for…….debt.
The money was spent, just not where it was supposed to be and now it is time to pay the piper.
- Realitycheck - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:55 pm:
Residential property tax payers within the Chicago City limits pay significantly less than anywhere else in Illinois. They haven’t run a referendum for their schools since 1967.
I am sure it is a shock. The rest of the State is shocked at the audacity of paying so little forever and then coming to Springfield to cry foul. Get a grip.
- JB13 - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:04 pm:
“Pensions are constitutionally protected. Get over it.”
This should be printed on every tax bill for the next 50 years.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:04 pm:
At least Rahm appears to now understand the pension liability issue has been decided and must be paid. Some might not like the decision but somehow, someway it must be paid and government derives most of its revenue from taxes. The easy tax, fee and fine increases have been made. It’s now time for the tough choices, property taxes, city income tax, state income tax increase, etc.
Sure agree with Rich in that this property assessment system sticks. But this has been reported on many, many times over the years. Madigan, Burke, Berrious and the tainted assessment and appeals system.
- Ahoy! - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:15 pm:
The irritating thing is how much of my tax dollars go towards someone else’s retirement and it’s going to get a lot worse. But we just have a revenue problem, we just need to give little Mike more of our money so he can buy and sell political power.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:16 pm:
It’s in the Dems DNA to raise taxes, and raise taxes and ……….then spend significantly more than tax increase brings in.
- JohnTwig - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:25 pm:
@ Ron – 1:44pm,
You say, “Pensions have an insatiable thirst for tax dollar.” NOT SO! The debt created by shorting and not paying for pensions in the past is the villain!
Had they been properly funded, Illinois pensions could have saved Illinois taxpayers billions! Take a kook at: http://illinoispublicpensions.com/uploads/3/5/6/1/3561752/tale_two_new.pdf
If only “the media” would distinguish between the true current cost of pensions and the added interest on the debt of past decades.
- atsuishin - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:27 pm:
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:46 pm
Hi I think you mean get out of it…mark my words chicago will see a detriot like drop in population come the census. Between high crime 3rd rate schools and every soaring taxes and fees hundreds and thousands of chicagoans are packing their bags.
- Morty - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:29 pm:
Ahoy! It’s irritating to me how much of my tax money goes towards things that I don’t like…like never ending military spending, corporate tax breaks, and charter schools…
Thems the breaks
- Anon Downstate - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:36 pm:
Actually, the future financial (RE tax) impacts (starting in 2020) are considerably worse for the taxpayers located in the City of Chicago.
From the post:
—————-
“Fridays in the summer are a great day to dump news you don’t want scrutinized, as reporters will tell you. Today, we got a new financial report from the city, the actuarial reports for its police and firefighter pensions and news of a private offering by Chicago’s school district.
The Report
First, the city released a carefully written, glitzy, Annual Financial Analysis. At least they put it online this year, a departure from the past, but that’s probably because it’s such meticulously prepared misinformation. Hooray, said most headlines and Mayor Emanuel in his cover letter: The 2017 deficit for the city will only be $138 million.
Only under a perverted meaning of “deficit,” they should have added. The report means little because it doesn’t include losses sustained in pensions and tax hikes for pensions deferred to the future, and it’s pensions that are Chicago’s primary problem. The kicked can isn’t included. Instead, the report is centered on near term, annual contributions to the pensions, which are made up by politicians and are inadequate even using the phony accounting that goes into them. That’s a primary reason why unfunded liabilities grow routinely.”
Read the rest to see the gory details….
https://mishtalk.com/2016/07/30/chicago-pension-situation-improving-says-mayor-careful-analysis-uncovers-lies/
A little “Something” for City of Chicago taxpayers to look forward to starting in 2020……
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:38 pm:
The only way to freeze property taxes is to limit collective bargaining and have more local control of spending.
Mandates from Springfield increase property taxes. Democrats will have to decide whose side they are on- taxpayers or their campaign contributors
- Demoralized - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:40 pm:
Lucky:
I swear sometimes I think you’re the Governor because you do an excellent job parroting his talking points and press releases
- Demoralized - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:43 pm:
==Residential property tax payers within the Chicago City limits pay significantly less than anywhere else in Illinois.==
I get your point but it really doesn’t matter. Paying more is paying more. People don’t think in relative terms like that. They just know that $2 is more than $1.
- blue dog dem - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:53 pm:
Its a broken system. It can’t be fixed via taxes or spending cuts. There is but one solution. Sorry.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:56 pm:
“The only way to freeze property taxes is to limit collective bargaining and have more local control of spending.”
Don’t forget bad policing has blown at least a half-billion hole into the City Budget in the past decade. Plus it likely makes the crime problem worse which cost hundreds of millions in police overtime over the same time frame.
It isn’t just pensions.
- qualified someone nobody sent - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 2:59 pm:
2/3 of Chicago property taxes go to CPS. While understanding that, remember that Illinois is ranked 50th, yes 50th, in the % of educational funding that comes from State sources. So I find it extremely rich when the Gov. sounds off on this issue. The State is responsible to educate its children and doesn’t do this Constitutional “requirement”. Therefore an over reliance on the most regressive tax of all, PROPERTY TAXES, are the primary source of education funding. Therefore your ZIP CODE is the most important factor in determining if your child gets a good public education. Gov. millionaire needs to INCREASE State funding for education and pay for it by raising revenue for this and to fill the annual structural deficit for 20 out of the last 25 years.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 3:04 pm:
Demoralized, thank you for the compliment I think. I am rally curios to see if any of the dismay over rising property taxes in Chicago actually translates into anyone changing their positions or being voted out of office
It seems Rahm is getting the majority of the blame even though he is cleaning up a mess that has been building for years. The Sun Times had a great article about how many aldermans property taxes went down. I laughed out loud at one of the more progressive alderman -Proco Joe Moreno complaining about how his tax bill went up 117%.
- here we go - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 3:28 pm:
Read this article this morning - it was a mistake, my blood was boiling.
I have absolutely NO problem with paying our fair share of taxes (including property taxes). BUT then to have the very same aldermen go out and look for appeals, that’s just insulting.
- Mama - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 3:48 pm:
- RNUG - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 1:49 pm: -
I agree with you 100%.
- Last Bull Moose - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 4:00 pm:
Unlike most here I do not have a huge dislike of property taxes. Residential property taxes are to a certain extent progressive since the wealthier families live in much more expensive housing. Particularly when they send their children to private schools, they are cash cows for the city.
Residential property values are strongly influenced by things under the control of the City; public safety, education, transportation including public transport, and the quality of government regulations (restaurant inspections, building and fire, etc.).
- Not It - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 4:03 pm:
I’m surprised so many Alderman are smart enough to get their property taxes lowered so much.
- Shemp - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 4:35 pm:
You cannot cap property taxes in exchange for new school funding because there are a lot of downstate fire and police pension levies that have been increasing many times more than CPI since 2008. To that extent, the State’s insistence on having hundreds of local pension funds governed by State laws and wages subject more to arbitration and arbitration decisions given to “comps” than actual local bargaining, it is the State pushing higher property taxes. Again, none of our neighbor states do it the way we do, and for good reason.
- DuPage - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 4:39 pm:
Chicago and Cook County have significantly lower property taxes then the collar counties.
- Illinois bob - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 4:54 pm:
@RNUG
=Property taxes are out of control primarily because the State does not properly support the schools.=
I respectfully disagree, RNUG. K-12 public schools in Illinois spend about 18% per student above the national average according to the NEAs annual “Rankings and Estimates” report despite a cost index in Illinois of only about 98%. Clearly the SPENDING is the reason that taxes are out of control, not state support. Even schools that are extremely well funded and have large reserves increase their taxes by PTELL limits every year, whether they need the money or not. Many still gouge by overtaxing for working cash bond sales which increase taxes in excess of PTELL and don’t require voter approval.
You must be aware of that, right?
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 5:16 pm:
DuPage 4:39pm–
You obviously do not live in the Cook County south suburbs.
- DuPage - Monday, Aug 1, 16 @ 8:59 pm:
No, I live in DuPage County, where the tax rate is among the highest. I heard the highest are now in Lake County.