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 The St. Clair County board voted to approve a 5 percent
increase to the county’s property tax levy for 2019. The increase will raise the
county’s property tax levy to $71.5 million from $68 million, according to the
Belleville News-Democrat. Only five of the board’s 29 members voted against the
levy hike.
Taxpayers in St. Clair County won’t find out what the levy hike means for their
own property tax bills until property values are assessed in spring. That’s when
the county will decide to what extent it will abate the property tax levy.
Taxpayers in the region need real property tax relief. St. Clair County property
taxes have nearly doubled over the past 20 years after adjusting for inflation –
an increase that amounts to around $665 per person.
It’s not uncommon for home values to increase in tandem with
local property taxes, provided that taxing bodies invest revenues in essential
government services. This, however, is not the case in St. Clair County, where
property taxes have grown more than 200 percent faster than median home values –
a rise driven primarily by growing pension costs.
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Migration patterns indicate taxpayers in the area
are tapped out. Between 2016 and 2017, more than 1,300 people moved
out of St. Clair County to other counties in the U.S. on net,
resulting in a population loss of nearly 650 people. Statewide, the
Land of Lincoln has suffered population loss for four consecutive
years. When polled, Illinoisans looking to plant roots elsewhere
cite taxes as the primary motivating factor.
It is a moral imperative that Springfield muster the political will
to amend the Illinois Constitution’s pension clause. Without the
ability to make sensible changes to future, not-yet-earned pension
benefits, taxpayers’ cost of living will continue to spike and
government workers’ retirement security will continue to erode. In
the short term, however, lawmakers should enable local governments
to enroll all new government workers into affordable 401(k)-style
defined-contribution plans.
Absent serious reform, rising tax bills will continue to find their
way to St. Clair County home addresses – or residents will continue
finding their way to home addresses outside St. Clair County.
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