Illinois legislator want to freeze property tax levies

[January 27, 2025]  By Catrina Barker | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – An Illinois state legislator introduced a bill that would freeze local government property tax levies at the 2025 amount for levy years 2026-2030.

State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, sponsors House Bill 1497 and said nearly every local government needs to figure out how to save money, and they need to find efficiencies and stop unnecessary operations.

"I'm sure there's going to be lots of opposition, but there's going to be lots of proponents. You 've had this double-digit inflation for the last five years, and taxpayers or property owners have got to have some relief,” said Halbrook. “My view is if an agency or a unit of government has not tried to cut any expenses ever or recently, they need to dig in and find some spots that they can cut some expenses somewhere.”

Halbrook said whether the unit of government is in compliance with The Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) or not, there are units of government that are just maxing out their levy.

“Whether it's under PTELL or 4.99%, without going to a truth in taxation hearing, they're just maxing those levies out,” said Halbrook. “There's units of government that are stacking up hundreds of thousands of dollars, and whether they're using it wisely or not wisely or they're just storing it up, this is a way to kind of grant some relief to property owners.”

PTELL limits the amount of tax extensions for non-home rule taxing districts.

Halbrook said if enacted and a freeze is in effect, he will also demand the Local Government Distributive Fund managed by the state be restored to its original percentage of 10% of income tax collections.

Illinois state Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville
Greg Bishop / The Center Square

“The LGDF, the local government distributing fund, which is income taxes the state collects, and this is part of the state constitution [which] reads that 10% of that [income tax collections] is to come back to the local municipalities. Well, years past, that got rolled back to like 6%,” said Halbrook. “The budget has grown over $13 billion, over 30% faster than the rate of inflation. So why is it that they're not able to return that LGDF? Why aren't they able to return that back to the full 10%?”

Halbrook said along with trying to get HB 1497 passed, he’ll vote against new mandates on public school districts or municipalities.

“I mean, one that they could come with at any day, and I don't think it's going to happen just because they can't, the supply isn’t there, but they can say, ‘every school district has to begin to phase out internal combustion engine school buses, and they have to be all EVs.’ Well, we know there's a dramatic increase in the price of those EV buses versus internal combustion engine buses,” said Halbrook. “Is it 50% more? Is it 100% more? What is that number? But whatever it is, it's going to put added pressure on that school budget and drive property taxes up.”

Last month, a study by SmartAsset ranked Peoria and Rockford, Illinois, as numbers one and two in the country for the cities with the highest property taxes.

Illinois is regularly in the top two for states with the highest property taxes.

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