COOK COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) — A new report on property taxes in Cook County shows they have skyrocketed over the past 30 years. And anyone who has seen their last tax bill can attest to the pressure on the checkbook.
In an election year, property taxes are on many voters’ minds. The county treasurer says she is trying to raise awareness about loopholes in the system that are contributing to the rising tax bill.
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Cook County residents face an April 1 deadline for the first payment of their property tax bills. Paying them has become an increasingly difficult burden for many people.
Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas highlighted the plight of a retired couple facing a tax bill that has tripled since last year.
“So they come in with their medical bills, their phone bills, their gas bills, their electric bills, their sewer bills, and they leave it all on the counter and say, ‘I can’t pay this,'” Pappas said. “So this is over 30 years. Property taxes have gone up over 182%.”
Pappas’ office just completed a study on rising property taxes. That study found that Cook County property taxes have increased at twice the rate of inflation over the past three decades.
According to the study, over the past 30 years, property taxes imposed in the county grew by 182%, while inflation increased less than 91% and average wages grew by 161%.
Pappas says loopholes have allowed local taxing agencies, through various means, to circumvent state laws that are supposed to limit annual property tax increases to the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is lower.
“We’re trying to figure out how to light a fire among the people who spend like drunken sailors, which is the top 562 Cook County governments,” Pappas said. “We want to light a fire under them to say, ‘Hey, you know what? We have to stop this.'”
Most property tax money goes to fund schools. The state now contributes hundreds of millions of dollars more each year to help school districts, but Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker says he hasn’t stopped tax increases.
“One of the purposes of this is to alleviate the burden on local governments, local school boards and people who pay property taxes locally,” Pritzker said. “But you know what? The school boards didn’t take the hint.”
Pritzker was asked if a proposed millionaires tax could be the solution to the property tax burden.
“It seems like property taxes just go up and up and we have to deal with that problem,” Pritzker said. “And I don’t think it’s just a million-dollar tax. If that happened, that would be the answer.”
Property taxes may be a priority for voters, but the question is: What steps, if any, will lawmakers be prepared, able and willing to take to address those concerns?
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