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1   HeadSet   2018 Feb 26, 5:46am  

Rather than working to lower one of the nation's highest property tax burdens, some Illinois lawmakers want to sidestep the federal tax reform bill by allowing for donations to government.

No matter what scheme they come up with, the "voluntary" aspect of the donations will cause many to not donate. The number of non-donations would increase each year as taxpayers gain confidence that the donations are in fact voluntary.
2   lostand confused   2018 Feb 26, 6:02am  

I just can't get it with dems-what amount is enough? How many people have to pay through their nose so they can fund the pension of a 300k a year village manager??
3   anonymous   2018 Feb 26, 7:43am  

State doesn't set property tax levels.
4   WookieMan   2018 Feb 26, 8:21am  

anon_8f378 says
I think you've been reminded of this in the past, but State doesn't set property tax levels.


Correct, the state doesn't set property tax levels. I think the problem a lot of us Illinoian's have is there are states like FL and TX that have no state income tax and substantially lower property taxes. How do those states do it?

I'd be okay with high property taxes if we didn't have a state income tax. Or do the reverse, high income tax and much lower property taxes. Our income tax % isn't massive (might be above the median, not sure), but when you compare it to other states and factor in the property taxes, we're paying waaaayyyyy too much. And give it 4 years or so. IL will be competing with CA on income taxes as a percentage to continue paying unrealistic obligations. There's no other way without being allowed to file statewide bankruptcy.
5   anonymous   2018 Feb 26, 8:40am  

WookieMan says

Correct, the state doesn't set property tax levels. I think the problem a lot of us Illinoian's have is there are states like FL and TX that have no state income tax and substantially lower property taxes. How do those states do it?

I'd be okay with high property taxes if we didn't have a state income tax. Or do the reverse, high income tax and much lower property taxes. Our income tax % isn't massive (might be above the median, not sure), but when you compare it to other states and factor in the property taxes, we're paying waaaayyyyy too much. And give it 4 years or so. IL will be competing with CA on income taxes as a percentage to continue paying unrealistic obligations. There's no other way without being allowed to file statewide bankruptcy.


There a crap ton of waste. No doubt about it. Drive by any Northwest or Northern Suburban fire house or police station--it's like they cities were competing to see which one could build the biggest, most elaborate station. IL has good schools but the teachers' salaries and pensions are too high. I'm sure there is a lot of low hanging fruit there, but neither party really wants to do the hard work to fix it.

Both parties want to blame each other when it's everyone's fault.
6   Patrick   2018 Feb 26, 8:49am  

Deleted a couple of comments by anon users who are attacking user personalities and not points.
7   lostand confused   2018 Feb 26, 9:25am  

anon_8f378 says
State doesn't set property tax levels.

Not directly. But lets say a county decides to stop all pensions, go hires contractors, cuts benefits etc etc-no pension for teachers etc-ya think the state will allow that?
There was one village that tried to make themselves a right to work and the state tried to criminalize that. yeah right-state does not set property taxes indeed.
8   WookieMan   2018 Feb 26, 9:41am  

anon_8f378 says
Both parties want to blame each other when it's everyone's fault


This is exactly correct. I also hate it when people get so hyper focused on Trump or Hillary. It's your city council approving $3M fire stations or a library board approving a $2M library for a community with 5k residents. Your property taxes then go up 30% and somehow that has anything to do with Trump or Hillary? (I know you're not saying that, but most places talking politics are still stuck on those characters)

When you factor in the median family wages and how little federal taxes actually effect them, it's rather hysterical how people are so focused on national politics. When your neighborhood alderman can easily take 4-5 digits our of your pocket, but close to 50% of Americans pay little to no federal income tax. But hey, I don't pay taxes, but I fully support that tax cut, yeah!!!. Or raise taxes 20% federally and I still won't pay a dime, but boooooo, you can't tax me more, well, because I don't make enough....
9   WookieMan   2018 Feb 26, 9:47am  

Patrick says
Deleted a couple of comments by anon users who are attacking user personalities and not points.


Can you answer yes or no if it was an attack on me? If it was, I'm pissed I missed it. I always get a good chuckle out of keyboard warriors.

I'm also not certain what statement or comment here can really be attacked by someone? I don't think there's any false info. While there are plenty of articles about IL, unless you live here, kind of hard to comment on the situation. It's worse then what is reported in the news.
10   anonymous   2018 Feb 26, 9:51am  

lostand confused says
Not directly. But lets say a county decides to stop all pensions, go hires contractors, cuts benefits etc etc-no pension for teachers etc-ya think the state will allow that?
There was one village that tried to make themselves a right to work and the state tried to criminalize that. yeah right-state does not set property taxes indeed.


I don't know--not sure. But you can sure as heck see a difference in pay and benefits for teachers in Northern IL vs. Southern IL. Both are part of the same state, last I checked.

State didn't stop Southern IL schools from paying less.
11   lostand confused   2018 Feb 26, 10:24am  

anon_8f378 says
I don't know--not sure. But you can sure as heck see a difference in pay and benefits for teachers in Northern IL vs. Southern IL. Both are part of the same state, last I checked.

State didn't stop Southern IL schools from paying less.

Il has the highest number of government units in the USA, Who pays the bills for all these competing agencies.
12   lostand confused   2018 Feb 26, 10:26am  

WookieMan says
It's your city council approving $3M fire stations or a library board approving a $2M library for a community with 5k residents. Your property taxes then go up 30% and somehow that has anything to do with Trump or Hillary? (I know you're not saying that, but most places talking politics are still stuck on those characters)

I have written to the rep, the council, the governor and all I egt is a canned answer. One good thing about CA, is the initative system. It is how prop 13 came into play. Can w ehave that in IL, where we cap property taxes and elt the stupid gubmnt figure it out on their budgets??
13   anonymous   2018 Feb 26, 10:54am  

lostand confused says
I have written to the rep, the council, the governor and all I egt is a canned answer. One good thing about CA, is the initative system. It is how prop 13 came into play. Can w ehave that in IL, where we cap property taxes and elt the stupid gubmnt figure it out on their budgets??


Vote for better local reps. School board. Fire board. Police board. Village board.
14   anonymous   2018 Feb 26, 10:54am  

lostand confused says
Il has the highest number of government units in the USA, Who pays the bills for all these competing agencies.


Not exactly sure what you mean, but they pay their own bills. That's what the property taxes are for.
15   lostand confused   2018 Feb 26, 11:19am  

anon_8f378 says
Vote for better local reps. School board. Fire board. Police board. Village boar

if that worked, we wouldn't be where we are. We need a proposition system where voters can vote on this directly.
16   WookieMan   2018 Feb 26, 11:38am  

anon_8f378 says
lostand confused says
Il has the highest number of government units in the USA, Who pays the bills for all these competing agencies.


Not exactly sure what you mean, but they pay their own bills. That's what the property taxes are for.


Again, you are correct, but that doesn't mean it's anywhere near efficient. There's too much duplicity in IL with the whole township and county layers of gov. If you just gave the cash to the county and dumped the township, you could eliminate a ton of overhead.

As it is now by me, county snow plows, to be most efficient, have to cross township roads with their blade up doing nothing except burning gas, money and time. This is simply retarded. No offense to actual retards as I think the actual system in place is less intelligent then an actual retarded individual. Just because bills are being paid, doesn't mean it's the best/efficient use of the money. And this is just one example of what they have deal with when it snows the 6-10 times per winter. Think about repaving those roads and the inefficiencies of not getting a better bulk price?

IL is a dumpster fire. I have a slight feeling you're posting anon and that you live in IL and we've had the occasional chat on IL. Which is fine, I don't care. But what redeeming quality does IL have outside of Chicago being nice from June to August? Starved Rock as far as nature goes? Almost every metric is negative during what most would consider an upswing in economic times over the last 3-4 years. If you live in IL and don't have some form of an exit plan, I fear for your future.
17   anonymous   2018 Feb 26, 2:56pm  

WookieMan says
Again, you are correct, but that doesn't mean it's anywhere near efficient. There's too much duplicity in IL with the whole township and county layers of gov. If you just gave the cash to the county and dumped the township, you could eliminate a ton of overhead.


Agreed. I'm certainly not defending it--just answering the question.

WookieMan says
IL is a dumpster fire. I have a slight feeling you're posting anon and that you live in IL and we've had the occasional chat on IL. Which is fine, I don't care. But what redeeming quality does IL have outside of Chicago being nice from June to August? Starved Rock as far as nature goes? Almost every metric is negative during what most would consider an upswing in economic times over the last 3-4 years. If you live in IL and don't have some form of an exit plan, I fear for your future.


I got out of IL myself after living there for too many years. Chicago area is quite nice but I'm still close enough to go whenever I want.
18   WookieMan   2018 Feb 26, 3:24pm  

anon_8f378 says

Agreed. I'm certainly not defending it--just answering the question.


Got it. No ill will intended. I get pissy about this state and sometimes some outsiders will try to shine a turd and it's just not possible with this state. And trust me, I don't want to move. Got family, roots here, etc, but I've got to be realistic about my future in this state at my age. My wife and I are very likely going to have to make a rather dramatic move physically getting out of the state and uprooting our kids out of school after years of them gaining friends in our current location. I truly hope this doesn't have to happen. But I'm guessing it's an 80-90% chance we have to in the next 5-7 years.

We're frugal but do decently well. The new SALT limits actually don't hurt us at all for property taxes, which is nuts in IL. We hit the cap on state income tax in 2017 with only 5 months or so at the new ~5% rate (obviously the $10k cap didn't go into effect yet for 2017 tax year). I don't see a way for IL not to tax families like mine into the double digits to keep the train on the tracks. I can afford 10% state income taxes, but why do it? I have no intention of paying $25-$35k to this state, of which $15-25k will be federally taxed at 24-32% depending on the year because I cap out and that's not including my property taxes. Throw in $30k in federal taxes and I think the picture becomes clearer. I'm not willing to piss away the median family income in this country on taxes. That's nuts.

anon_8f378 says
Chicago area is quite nice but I'm still close enough to go whenever I want.


I generally think Chicago gets it's praise as a city, but do feel like it sometimes gets the red headed step child treatment. It really is a kick ass city, especially during the summer. It's been ages since I've been to New York, but it beats the likes of LA, NYC, Houston, etc in my opinion during the Summer. I'd miss it, but I've got some other locations in mind if we have to make the move at some point.

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