Residents of Chicago’s collar counties pay the highest property taxes in the state – and some of the highest in the country.

In a bipartisan effort to cut McHenry County’s local tax burden, the McHenry County Board voted overwhelmingly in favor of a pledge to cut the county tax levy by 10 percent. The board chairman has intimated he will pursue further local government consolidation efforts.

Local officials’ failure to address skyrocketing property taxes has pushed residents out of McHenry County at astonishing rates.

Local governments must pare their budgets, forcing them to identify best practices they should have found already.