Jerome Cooper

“Higher property taxes from Amendment 1 would mean I’m gonna have to leave Illinois because I can’t afford to stay here. The same goes for most of my elderly neighbors. It’d be devastating.”

“I’m on a fixed income. So extra property taxes every month is gonna kick me right out of my home. I couldn’t put my property in jeopardy to go into debt for somebody who put a tax lien on it.”

“I’ve personally owned my house since 2011, but my family’s been here since 1968. I took care of an elderly parent before inheriting it.”

“This last raise, my property taxes went up $2,064 between the second half and the first half after this last increase.”

“Before retirement, I was a Local 134 electrician. I did that for 36 years, since ‘85, and the only reason why I was forced to retire is because I’m disabled. Medical problems restrict me from working.”

“I can’t vote for anything that will cost us more money. I belong to a union. I don’t go to every meeting, but I’m sure they’ll be sending out about Amendment 1. I have a feeling they won’t talk about the damage it is going to do to families that are just making ends meet, especially in this economy.”

“There are a lot of elderly people by me. My little section is excluded in the Fourth Ward. We’re forgotten about compared with the rest of Markham. It’s truly a sad story. We don’t get any attention from the city, but we pay the highest taxes in Markham. Now it sounds like we’re close to being taxed out of our homes.”

“Again, on a fixed income there’s not much we can do about it. We can appeal our property tax bill but that also costs money.”

“I’m not old enough to qualify for a senior tax freeze, so I get no help there. I just recently found out since I became disabled that you can apply for a disability exemption and I had to. Otherwise, I would’ve been even closer to losing my house. Again, I almost had to come up with $6,000 out of my pocket on a fixed income. With my Social Security, it’s a struggle.”

“All in all, it’s stressful. You’re constantly worried and then when you’re paying extraordinary taxes with no city services, and the city is against you, you have to jump through hoops to get any kind of action.”

“It’s very stressful and truly Illinois is the home that I love and grew up in, and it’s starting to change. Maybe I should move somewhere else, which again will be stressful.”

Jerome Cooper
Markham, Illinois