This article was written by Denise Moran and featured in the The Courier News (A Chicago Sun-Times publication) on May 20, 2014.
BURLINGTON — On Monday night, 30 area residents attended both the Central Community Unit School District 301 board meeting and the Plato Township meeting.
They also are planning to attend the next Elgin City Council meeting.
Their question for all three taxing bodies is the same: Why are property taxes continuing to increase, and what can be done to decrease the tax rate?
A number of the residents who attended the two meetings on Monday live in the Highland Woods subdivision on Elgin’s far-west side.
Brian Clark, a Highland Woods resident, said that his property taxes last year were $16,100. This year, the property taxes increased to $18,000.
“Our home was one of the first homes in Highland Woods,” Clark said. “Nobody was aware of the high property taxes when they moved in. We could live practically anywhere else in the United States and pay half as much. We’re literally buying a car for the school district every year.”
Clark moved into Highland Woods in 2007. He said at the time he was expecting to pay around $10,000 to $12,000 in property taxes. The tax rate has increased every year: 8.16 percent in 2008, 8.35 percent in 2009, 9.04 percent in 2010, 9.82 percent in 2011, 10.79 percent in 2012, and 11.92 percent in 2013.
“Since the property tax bills came out, I’ve been seeing homes going up for sale,” Clark said. “We don’t want to be taxed out of our homes. Why aren’t taxing bodies controlling their spending?”
Clark has started a website on Facebook called Plato Township Property Tax Fight. The site already has 116 members.
According to a recent Gallup survey, 50 percent of Illinoisans would like to leave this state. Around 19 percent are actually making plans to leave.
The November 2013 research report by Brian Costin, director of government reform for the Illinois Policy Institute, states that a big part of the problem is that Illinois has far too many taxing bodies.
“Illinois has the most units of local government of any state in the country,” the report stated. “According to the U.S. Census Bureau, with 6,963 local governments, Illinois beats its nearest competitor by more than 1,800. Texas is No. 2 with 5,147 local governments. The average Illinoisan resides in an area that has at least six layers of local government including county, township, municipality, both a primary and secondary level school district, and a community college district.”
“The result is higher costs for Illinoisans. Local government is primarily financed through local property taxes. Illinois’ high number of governments contributes to the state having the second highest property tax rates in the nation.”
There are some residents in the Kane County portion of Elgin, according to the report, who have no fewer than 16 local government agencies operating in their area.
Special-purpose districts in this area include Forest Preserve District of Kane County, Plato Township Road District, Plato Township Cemetery District, Ella Johnson Memorial Public Library, Fox River Water Reclamation District, Northwest Kane Airport Authority, Pingree Grove and Countryside Fire Protection District, Plato Township Solid Waste Disposal District, Metra, Pace Suburban Bus Service, and Regional Transportation Authority.
General-purpose entities in the same area include Kane County, Plato Township, City of Elgin, District 301, and Elgin Community College.
‘Pointing fingers’
When confronted by taxpayers seeking an answer to high property taxes, residents face a blame game.
Highland Woods resident Tony Scifo said: “We want to streamline our efforts, but there is mass confusion in each taxing body. Everyone is pointing fingers at someone else. Each taxing body is willing to admit there is a problem, but they are unwilling to address it. Nobody is taking responsibility for the portion that they control.”
Scifo said it is unfair that whenever the city of Elgin is approached with a petition for a new church, forest preserve, school or senior retirement home, it tends to have it built in Plato Township. In addition to the fact that places such as churches and forest preserves do not bring in tax dollars, they also eat up land that could have been used for a new business that would bring in sales tax money.
“We’ve trusted city and school officials to do the jobs we elected them to do, and they have abused their power,” Scifo said. “In four years, we need to vote every incumbent official out of office. We are looking at 11 more years of paying off the interest and principal on the school tax bond. Why can’t we refinance the bond now in order to lower property taxes?”
LeeAnn Larson of Burlington Township said her property taxes have increased by 14 percent since last year. She and her family have lived in their home for the past 10 years.
“We hired tax consultants to go before the property tax appeals board,” Larson said. “It went nowhere. We’ve talked to our tax assessor, Debbie McKermitt. There doesn’t seem to be any accountability. I would like to see schools become more fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.”
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