I was wondering if anyone would point out the “....because” part of this story. Property taxes have skyrocketed because both the state and the cities are upside down to the tune of billions of dollars owed to those grafting public employee unions. Hard as the pols might try to suck that extra money out of the Illinois taxpayer, they’ll never get out of the hole on this because they’re driving taxpayers out - less taxpayers = a higher tax bill for the individuals who remain. Chicago homeowners were hit with something over a 30% increase in their property taxes last year for this very reason. Recently, Rahmbo has extended the extortion to a ridiculous increase in the city’s water rates to help pay the pension bill. He’s not just going after property owners, now. Every citizen pays a water bill - except the homeless, of course. This house of cards is very close to complete collapse, but no one seems willing or able to make the public employee unions share any of the pain from a piss poor Obana economy and Wall Street’s plunder of pension funds through market manipulation.
That is correct. The situation is a death spiral. Governments think they can get away with raising property taxes because the property can't get up and leave. But the taxes on the property affect the value of the property, and if the value of the property gets close to zero, people will walk away from the property. It will become a ghost town of perfectly good buildings, at least until the squatters move in.
@33
But, but the cost is worth it to be able to reside in an earthly paradise
like Vietrahm.
PS, notice is name can spell HARM.