As my team and I are planning for the start of our next legislative session, I want to bring attention to an issue I will be fighting to reform: Illinois’ crushing property taxes.
According to the Tax Foundation, Illinois homeowners paid an average property tax rate of 1.83% in 2023, ranking our state the highest in the nation. That number may seem small and meaningless, but the damage is massive. Families are being squeezed harder every year, making it more difficult to afford to live here.
I recently had a 93-year-old widow in my office in Dixon explain to me that she had to sell her house — rising taxes, home insurance, and cost of living had risen past what her modest fixed income could handle. She wasn’t sure how much time that gave her, though, as rent had grown too high to make it a viable alternative.
It is no surprise that so many families are leaving Illinois for a more affordable life. And our young people continue to leave Illinois at a pace faster than any other state. We’re losing an entire generation.
Instead of offering tax relief, Governor Pritzker and his allies signed the largest budget in state history, which included nearly $1 billion in new tax hikes and one-time gimmicks. And it does not stop there — they have pledged to continue pushing for even more, including a $1.50 delivery tax, housing tax, and digital advertising taxes, to name just a few!
And, critically for this discussion, Pritzker’s budget offers no relief from the unfunded mandates that feed into high local property taxes. Neither does it restore cuts to the Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF) formulas, which have forced local governments to raise property taxes. Finally, it does not seriously address Illinois’ legacy debt, which must be addressed before the state can properly invest in local infrastructure. Local government property taxes continue to go up as they desperately try to fill in all these new financial gaps caused by the state.
These state budget failures are exactly why Illinois continues to fall behind. Rather than making government more efficient and addressing the state’s debt-damaged financial structure, Democrats choose to raise taxes on hardworking families while ignoring reforms that could lower costs and help people stay in their homes.
Illinois does not need higher taxes — especially property taxes — and bigger spending. What we need are real reforms that provide relief to homeowners and workers. I will continue fighting to make that happen!