Property taxes in northwest Chicago suburbs to spike by $560 on average

Lawmakers need to enact comprehensive property tax reform to provide relief for overburdened state taxpayers.

Homeowners in the northwest suburbs of Chicago just learned their property tax bills are going up.

An average homeowner in northwest Cook County will pay $560 more in property taxes this year than he or she paid last year, a jump of 6.5 percent, according to Cook County Clerk David Orr’s tax rate and reassessment values as The Daily Herald reported. Residents of Rosemont and Bensenville will see their property tax bills grow by 11.4 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.

The rise in taxes includes both an increase in the region’s property values and an increase in the county’s equalization factor, a variable in determining property tax rates that partly determines the taxable value of a property, according to The Daily Herald.

Current policy is driving people into other states. A 2016 survey from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute reveals taxes are the biggest reason Illinoisans want to leave the state. That’s not surprising, as Illinois’ combined state and local tax burden is higher than that of every other state and the District of Columbia. No county experienced a greater net loss in population than Cook County between 2015-2016. The Chicago metropolitan area lost more residents than any other metropolitan area in the country.

The signal is clear: Enter higher taxes, exit citizens.

Homeowners are tapped out, and if lawmakers want to stem the tide of Illinoisans fleeing the state, they’ll need to embrace comprehensive property tax reform.