Rapidly rising property taxes and growing pension costs leave homeowners asked to pay more to get less. Relief requires structural pension reform, starting with a constitutional amendment.
During the past decade, one of the few taxpayer-supported local history museums in Illinois collected over $2 million. That is ending, but not before another $300,000 in taxes is handed to the museum.
An underused airport near Belleville, Illinois, has required local taxpayers to chip in $119.5 million since 2002 to keep it operating. Even with pandemic money, 2020 was even worse.
Quincy property taxes do not generate enough to fund the municipal pension costs. Even with that heavy burden, there is so much state and local pension debt that the average Quincy household owns more than $35,600.
“A $60,000 increase isn’t gradual. I thought, ‘This has to be a mistake. Someone must have spilled their coffee, added a zero, or something.’”
More than 18 months after Illinois Department of Employment Security offices closed their doors to Illinoisans, all state job centers have reopened for in-person assistance. Job seekers need an appointment, though.
Rapidly rising pension costs compete with classroom spending, reducing resources for teachers and students while driving up property taxes.
Despite so much of the property tax share going to public pensions, there is still a huge unmet pension debt. The average Rock Island household owes nearly $40,000 to state and local pensions.
Chicago homeowners are likely to see average property tax bills rise between $72 and $180 based on the city’s new budget. Higher taxes are driven by $47 billion in pension debt, but pension reform can change that.
Guest: Mailee Smith
The average Danville household owns nearly $40,000 in state and local pension debt.
“So far, Illinois has lost $1 billion to fraud, at least. Regardless of how you feel, politically, Democrat or Republican, the money that you’re losing could meet all the social program needs that you would ever want for your population.”
“I want to tell my story so that kids that deal with learning disabilities or people telling them, ‘They can’t be something,’ feel like they can be something, and they don’t listen to the negativity.”
Illinois’ non-farm payrolls only added 2,500 jobs from mid-July to mid-August. Unemployment was steadily high as the rest of the nation recovered.