North Cook News

Recent data show that Illinois is among the top 10 states with the highest overall tax burden.

According to WalletHub, the state has an overall tax burden of 10.19 percent -- the 10th highest in the country.

When it comes to property taxes, the Land of Lincoln ranks even higher, with an average effective property tax rate of 2.32 percent, which is the second highest in the nation, surpassed only by New Jersey.

“Every day I talk to voters who are fed up with the taxes in this state,” Mel Thillens, Republican Senate candidate for District 28, recently told North Cook News. “Every day I talk to retirees who have paid off their houses but can't afford to stay because of the property taxes.  We need property tax relief.”

Thillens said that, as a Park Ridge Park Board commissioner, he is proud to have voted to freeze the property tax levy for four years.

“And during that time we've been able to do great things -- maintain our facilities and even add a new pool,” he said. “It is all about managing the money well and giving the taxpayer value for their dollar.”

Last October, the Chicago City Council approved a 2016 budget with $755 million in tax and fee increases proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The plan had the largest property tax hike in the city’s modern history.

In Illinois, property taxes are the bread and butter of local governments. With close to 7,000 local government districts -- far more than any other state, and each with the power to levy property tax -- the overall property tax bill for Illinois residents is exorbitant.

In 2013, more than $27 billion was collected in property taxes statewide compared to $18.3 billion collected in individual income taxes, $5.2 billion in corporate income taxes and personal-property replacement taxes, and $13.2 billion in sales and use tax revenue.

Over the past 50 years, Illinois property taxes have grown at an alarming rate: 2.5 times faster than inflation and 14 times faster than the state’s population since 1963.

“The state needs to reduce the costly mandates it puts on school districts, park districts and villages,” Thillens said. “Let them operate more efficiently without state interference. Then we can have a property tax freeze and get some relief to the taxpayers.”

Since 1990, residential property taxes in the state have grown 3.3 times faster than median household incomes, translating to an increase of 76 percent, according to Illinois Policy, which also reported that if the state froze its residential property taxes today, the property tax burden would only return to 1990 levels after 28 years.

Overall, all property owners -- residential, commercial and industrial -- pay more taxes than they did two decades ago. Residential property owners, however, shoulder more of the tax burden than other property owners. Twenty years ago, residential taxpayers paid 52 percent of all property taxes. Now, they pay more than 64 percent.

Even more frustrating for taxpayers is the complex nature of property taxes in Illinois, making it difficult for taxpayers to understand how their tax dollars are being utilized.