Tax sales are the hammer used to encourage (force) real estate owners to pay the annual property taxes.
Property taxes, which reach as far back as the Pharaohs, are a stable method of financing governments.
But the tax sale approach in which those paying delinquent taxes gain title to the property if the owner does not repay the tax buyer the amount of the tax bill, plus exorbitant interest (not down from a maximum of 12% every six months to %) was ruled unconstitutional three years ago.
The Democratic Paryt-controlled General Assembly has done nothing to make our law constitutional.
Now a Federal Judge has ruled in a Cook County case that puts county taxpayers at risk of reimbursing those who lost their properties through tax sales for the unconstitutionally taken equity.
The Pacific Legal Foundation has extensive information, including a table showing the estimated exposure of a number of Illinois counties with details about the number of homes involved and their average value.
The Illinois Policy Institute developed a chart based on the information from Pacific that estimates the exposure of the county governments:
McHenry County’s exposure is $13 million.
