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ILLINOIS
PROPERTY TAXES RANK NO. 2 IN THE NATION FOR THIRD YEAR RUNNING
Illinois Policy Institute/
Brad Weisenstein
Property
taxes in Illinois are nearly double the national average. Until state
lawmakers trim down thousands of local governments and pursue pension
reform, those bills wills remain high. |
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 Illinois leads the nation with nearly 7,000 units of local
government, but a new bill would swat one of the smaller units.
Mosquito abatement districts would be eradicated, with counties taking over
their responsibilities under Senate Bill 3412. State Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton,
D-Western Springs, is the chief sponsor of the bill that would bring a welcomed
bit of relief to taxpayers.
Illinois currently has 21 mosquito abatement districts. This is not the first
time these districts have had the option to consolidate. Former Gov. Bruce
Rauner signed a bill in 2018 that allowed the boards of mosquito abatement
districts to vote to consolidate themselves with another unit of local
government, but the districts remain.
Consolidating units of local government helps save taxpayers money. It
eliminates unnecessary administrative costs that drive up local property taxes.
 Illinois had 6,918 units of local government in 2017, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau. The average Illinoisan lives under six layers of local
government. More units of local government mean residents pay higher property
taxes, largely thanks to administrative costs.
With so many units of local government, Illinois residents pay some of the
nation’s highest property taxes. Illinois homeowners pay the highest effective
property tax rate among large states, as well as the second-highest property
taxes in the nation.
Lawmakers need to pursue more ways to consolidate units of local government and
help bring down property taxes. Many units overlap or perform the same
functions. A county or municipality could easily carry out mosquito abatement
districts’ duties. But they are not the only units that can be consolidated.
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Many townships share overlapping boundaries with
cities. Evanston saved $800,000 when Evanston Township was absorbed
by the city, as they shared the same boundaries.
Potentially the greatest savings could be from
consolidating Illinois’ bloated school district administration.
Illinois was the only state to spend over $1 billion on school
district administration in 2017. These are property taxes that are
intended to help children learn, but never see the classroom because
they are spent on bureaucracy. Taxpayers could save $708 million a
year and student achievement could advance if Illinois consolidated
school districts to the national average, a move that would leave
individual schools intact and just combine their district-level
administration.
Reducing Illinois’ layers of government is part of the property tax
solution in Illinois, but as long as pension debt continues to eat
public dollars and reduce services the property taxes will remain
high. The only responsible way out of Illinois’ pension debacle and
to provide true property tax relief is to structurally reform
pensions to control the growth of future, unearned benefits so they
are in line with what taxpayers can afford. That will take a
constitutional amendment such as House Joint Resolution
Constitutional Amendment 21.
But along the way, swatting a few layers of local government would
help.
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