Face it: Property taxes are forcing Illinoisans out of their homes

Illinois Policy ^ | October 13, 2016 | Austin Berg

[george76]

Pardess Mitchell is watching her community crumble.

She and her husband have lived in Lake County for 16 years. They pay more in property taxes than they do on their mortgage. The tax bill is $15,000 a year on a house they bought for $227,000 in 2013.

“They’re taxing us out of the neighborhood. They’re pushing us out. They’re pushing us out of our homes and communities,” she said. “If it continues this way we’ll have to leave.”

A Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll released Oct. 10 revealed nearly half of registered Illinois voters said they would leave the state if they could. Many have left already.

Take Alex Schmidt. He was born and raised in Illinois. He never thought his first child would be born a Texan.

But in May, Schmidt and his wife left Illinois for Houston. He said taxes drove them out. He couldn’t take another hike in his property tax bill: It was $12,000 on a Highland Park home.

“As soon as I had to get a property tax attorney a light bulb went off,” he said. “What am I doing?”

Outside Houston, the Schmidts live in a house 50 percent larger with a smaller property tax bill than their Illinois home. The schools are even better than what they left behind. And Texas doesn’t have an income tax. So Alex got a raise.

Illinois has a massive problem with residents leaving the state for greener pastures.

Over the last decade, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show Illinois has experienced a net loss of 290,000 working-age adults to out-migration. But many Illinois politicians refuse to acknowledge it’s a problem.

...

Illinoisans pay among the highest property taxes in the country. It’s not surprising that some are deciding to move as a result.

[i_robot73]

>
The property tax is the most unfair tax of them all. You can be on your deathbed with no income and if you dont pay your tribute to the county mafia you will be thrown out of a home that you may have worked a lifetime to buy.
>

The ‘problem’ is in your presumption: They cannot tax what you own. Ergo, you bought the house, but NOT the ‘property’.

[Darteaus94025]

Taxes are forcing MAKERS out of Illinois, and leaving the TAKERS there.

Hello Indiana!

[sportutegrl]

There was a politician in Philly that had a house worth 1 million but was valued on the tax rolls for less than 100,000. Typical.

[bgill]

Makes me grateful for Prop 13 in California (one of the few things positive in this state). It restricts property taxes increases to no more than 2% per year from its starting point (ours is increasing 0.9% this coming tax period).

Texas property tax can go up 10% each year. Mine has each and every year. When we moved in, taxes were 2 weeks of take home income. It's now taking 3 months and 10 days of our take home pay.

3 months and 10 days.

People can't live like that.

[CaptainK]

My question to you is, who is buying their houses?

[torqemada]

>> I don’t believe the state controls local property taxes. <<

I can’t speak to other states laws, but Washington State does, in fact, control property taxes through legislation on how, when, and how property is valued for the purposes of taxation because the State has to get their cut. It’s usually the largest portion of our property tax obligation, which goes into the State’s General Fund, purportedly to pay for education costs. There is a program for low income/elderly to allow some exemption from paying local levies (like school and hospital bonds), but the State’s share of the tax is rarely (if ever) exempt. I’d be shocked (shocked! I tell you) to find that Illinois doesn’t take at least half of the property tax collected, too, and you don’t do that without laws granting the State, Counties, and Cities to levy and collect taxes.

[EVO X]

Illinois gets most its of money through income taxes and a base sales tax. Illinois has the most taxing bodies of any state and they are funded by add ons to property taxes and sales taxes.

[skinndogNN]

“We’re in the Coppell ISD”

I live in Lewisville, and work in Las Colinas.

Denton Tap is my thru-way. It’s a nightmare. They need to build some time of multi-layer highway for Denton Tap.

I’m sure your Coppell tax dollars wouldn’t mind paying for that. : )

[Freedom56v2]

>> I don’t believe the state controls local property taxes. <<

I can’t speak to other states laws, but Washington State does, in fact, control property taxes through legislation on how, when, and how property is valued for the purposes of taxation because the State has to get their cut. It’s usually the largest portion of our property tax obligation, which goes into the State’s General Fund, purportedly to pay for education costs. There is a program for low income/elderly to allow some exemption from paying local levies (like school and hospital bonds), but the State’s share of the tax is rarely (if ever) exempt. I’d be shocked (shocked! I tell you) to find that Illinois doesn’t take at least half of the property tax collected, too, and you don’t do that without laws granting the State, Counties, and Cities to levy and collect taxes.

---

Well, guess you can be shocked, Illinois property taxes do not go to the state nor does the state have any say so...I checked property tax bill and called the County Treasurer office.

Apparently states do differ.

[Freedom56v2]

No add-ons in Dupage County.

[EVO X]

We get dinged here and there in Champaign. Sales tax can be high as 9%, but get a break for food, meds, cars, and etc. State base rate is 6.25% State gets 5%, county .25%, and city 1%.

[Original Lurker]

Yup! Just another reason I loathe government indoctrination centers - aka - government schools. It’s a freakin’ racket.

If you can’t afford to pay for your kid’s education - you can’t afford kids.

Simple, huh?

[infool7]

How about 8K in taxes for a house that sold for less than 17K? It’s robbery plain and simple.

The Constitution is null and void in Illinois. You cannot own private property or it will be taxed away from you.

[Freedom56v2]

We get dinged here and there in Champaign. Sales tax can be high as 9%, but get a break for food, meds, cars, and etc. State base rate is 6.25% State gets 5%, county .25%, and city 1%.

---

Well, I won’t dispute your facts. We pay:

Taxing Jurisdiction Rate
Illinois state sales tax 6.25%
City tax 0.50%
Special tax 0.75%
Combined Sales Tax: 7.50%

Here is Chicago: (and some other Cook County area has 11%—Wow)

Taxing Jurisdiction Rate
Illinois state sales tax 6.25%
Cook County sales tax 1.75%
Chicago tax 1.25%
Special tax 1.00%
Combined Sales Tax: 10.25%

My point is that property taxes are levied locally—Illinois has lot of issues, but folks should be bringing tar and feathers to school board meetings if they want lower property taxes ;)

[Mears]

“”Not going down anytime soon, either. Latest Zillow just passed $350K.”

—

Count your blessings—the median where I live is $800,000.00.

.

[Freedom56v2]

I believe that there are some municipalities in IL that have some sort of waiver of certain property taxes for low income seniors to guard against that.

[Night Hides Not]

Believe me, I do count my blessings. We bought the house about 20 years ago for $170K, 2400 SF. Most of the appreciation has occurred within the last five years, as evidenced by the taxable value being far behind Zillow. State law allows a max of 10% increase in taxable value per year.

It's a really nice area to live in, schools are good, diverse community...good people. Our local Catholic church has grown from 1000 families to 8000 families, other faiths have shown similar growth.

The only saving grace to the congestion is a 25 acre open field across the street from us. The minute I see construction starting, we put the house on the market.

Multiple bids are placed the first day a house goes on the market here.

My price is simple: Zillow plus 10%. If no one wants to buy, no problem...I can wait.

[EVO X]

They do the same thing with propery taxes. There maybe some obscure taxing authority tacked on the propery taxes.

Found some info on Lake county. They do have the highest property taxes in the state.

"The median property tax (also known as real estate tax) in Lake County is $6,285.00 per year, based on a median home value of $287,300.00 and a median effective property tax rate of 2.19% of property value."

[Mears]

“Multiple bids are placed the first day a house goes on the market here. “

---

That’s incredible.

It’s sounds like a great place to live.

.

[Night Hides Not]

Unless you're in West Lewisville, I'd say pay the toll and take the Bush to Las Colinas.

I'm lucky that my commute goes against traffic on 114, other direction is a parking lot.

Denton Tap/Belt Line is a nightmare. It's a 45 minute roundtrip to Coppell HS (6 miles from my house). With my kid in band, we're making that trip at least twice a day, sometimes more...it's a real beat down.

Here's the problem: Coppell's population has doubled in the last 5-7 years, and developers are building on every inch of available land: McMansions on 8000 SF lots, the Billingsley/North Lake development.

Coppell HS now has over 3500 students, and more are coming with these new RE developments. I'm sure you're seeing the same thing in Lewisville & Flower Mound.

My youngest son, all he's ever known is Coppell, and we'll be here through his sophomore year for sure. If he tells me that he'd like a chance to get playing time at a smaller school, I'll support him in that. I mean, we had 80+ boys try out for the freshman basketball team. He's made great strides, and it's not sour grapes with me. I saw the numbers: our 3 middle schools have 3 teams each in basketball, and he was C team in 7th & 8th grade. Just the fact that he made the first and second cuts (down to 30) was telling.

I'll be looking at districts out west, past Lantana. My wife will be retiring soon, and I work at Alliance. My grandson's paternal grandparents live in Bartonville, so I'm familiar with the area out there.