From The Center Square:

Illinois lawmakers weigh options to change rising property tax structure

• By Glenn Minnis | The Center Square contributor

The Center Square) – Republican state Rep. Joe Sosnowski has filed legislation he hopes will make life easier on Illinois residents now facing some of the highest property taxes in the country.

With the issue of affordability being a critical one across much of the nation, Sosnowski recently filed House Bill 4626, which seeks to cap rising property taxes by basing costs on the equalized assessed value of a home in the year that it was bought.  

Final assessment costs would then not increase for as long as the person owns their home, with the goal being to make housing more attractive and affordable for first-time buyers, working families and fixed income seniors.

“We’re not growing, and one of the biggest problems is we have the highest property tax rate and the highest overall combined tax rate of any of the 50 states,” Sosnowski told The Center Square. “This legislation would be an immediate help to homeowners. It allows people to have an investment that grows, similar to retirement accounts and things that just because they grow in value doesn’t mean you pay more taxes year to year.”

With Illinois also being home to the most local taxing bodies, House Bill 3723 would also cap annual property tax increases at 1% for seniors and House Bill 3724 would cap all such increases for homeowners at 3%.

“It’s been proven that other states with low property taxes are always appealing for people that want to move and invest in a residence,” Sosnowski said. “We’ve got to do that. There’s a lot more states now starting to talk about phasing out property tax completely or limiting it in drastic ways so that it becomes less of a burden. It’s detrimental to people if we have the highest property tax in the nation. We’ve seen over time is that people are just voting by leaving.”

With all three bills have now been referred to the Rules Committee, Democratic State Rep. LaShawn Ford questions if they truly stand to make a difference for most.

“You have people that don’t own, and we have to worry about their affordability,” Ford told The Center Square. “Affordability is inflation and the cost of health care, the cost of food, gas. We need to make sure that we do everything we can to look at affordability across the board.”

While Ford warms to aspects of Sosnowski’s plan, such as the cap for seniors, he takes issue with what he sees as its lack of overall fairness.

“You have people that actually gut a property out and just keep the foundation, keep the four walls and build a whole new home and we’re going to assess them at the same value as others, as if it was just built,” he said. That doesn’t make sense, and then that’s cheating local governments; it’s cheating the schools, the parks, the fire and police.”

Ford instead argues in favor of a millionaire’s tax where he insists the revenues could be extended to aid more residents.  

“That’s what we want to do,” he said. “We want to help the system, help property owners as well as make sure that there are no unintended consequences for the municipalities and the communities.”