Monitor the real estate tax redistribution

In the 11 years my wife and I have owned our 2,300-square-foot home in Glen Ellyn, we’ve seen our property taxes go from $5,788 to $8,766, which is a 51 percent increase from the 1999 tax year. During the same period, the U.S. Department of Labor certifies the Urban Consumer Price Index rose 26.9 percent, or 24 percent less than our taxes did.

Illinois’ tax cap law limits tax levy increases to the smaller of 5 percent or the CPI plus any new referendums that voters approve. If your taxes have risen as much as ours have, it’s probably because your assessed value has risen enough to permit it. Assessed values determine who pays more or who pays less than the next guy.

An army of lawyers and tax professionals each year wins tax reductions for their clients who own commercial properties. Every time they win reductions that homeowners can only dream about, those taxes are shifted onto other property owners. It’s an insidious process that is slowly but surely redistributing the tax burden to unsustainable levels.

Education taxes are consuming about 75 percent of homeowners’ tax bills, and the school boards say they care deeply about rising taxes. However, how many even bother to identify the 25 largest tax reductions in their district each year to protect taxpayers? If no one knows about the large commercial reductions, the stealth redistribution will continue. The data is there; all the school boards need to do is ask the assessors for it each year. I have to think there are many conscientious school board members that would support an annual monitoring program in the interest of fairness and fiscal health for their districts if they knew the extent of the problem.

Charles Murphy

Glen Ellyn