Look deeply into local tax numbers

The study released Monday by a financial watchdog agency bristles with a tone of alarm: Over the past decade, property tax levies increased nearly 50 percent for the 550-plus taxing bodies in Cook County.

But there are important details here that demand deeper analysis.

Significantly, the nonprofit Heartland Institute notes that suburban taxing bodies — as opposed to the city — are driving much of the increase, but a careful review offers plenty of reason to approach these numbers with thoughtful caution. The Heartland study echoes reporting by Daily Herald staff writer Jake Griffin a month ago that found nearly all but the 83 communities in the Daily Herald circulation area have increased the amount of taxes they collect in spite of decreasing property values and a sluggish economy. So, there’s little question that revenues have risen. But as Griffin emphasized, and the Heartland study acknowledges, the numbers are replete with extenuating circumstances.

In the first place, Heartland’s analysis, based on data supplied by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, recognizes that its bottom line is distorted by a handful of communities that experienced dramatic increases due to rapid growth as well as by the anomalies of taxing bodies whose boundaries overlap into neighboring counties. But perhaps even more telling is the significant finding that we’re doing it to ourselves. That is, a substantial portion of the increased revenues occurred with voters’ approval. Pointing to a new trend toward referendum rejections, Pappas offered the chilling assessment that “people are starting to figure out they should vote no.”

Yet, there is some danger in suggesting that the best response to rising tax revenues is to rashly reject every proposal. Perhaps a more accurate assessment of the recent referendum record would be that people are starting to figure out what it takes to support the amenities that make the suburbs such an attractive place to live.

Good schools aren’t free. Smooth, safe roads have a price. Top-notch police and fire protection requires investment, as do the myriad other less expensive services such as parks, libraries, sidewalks, sewers, trash removal and more that all add incrementally to the property tax bill.

And that point emphasizes the responsibilities that face both voters and public officials. To be sure, in an era of cutbacks and belt tightening, any of us may naturally wonder whether we’re actually getting more for our local tax money than we did 10 years ago. But that only emphasizes how important it is that we pay attention to whom we elect and how they manage our resources.

It’s not a matter of — in Pappas’ overly simplified phrase — rejecting every expense. It’s a matter of, one, voters demanding accountability from the people they elect to manage these services, and, two, those officials concentrating on getting the return on that investment in lifestyle.

Considered in that context, the Heartland report isn’t so much a sound of alarm as it is a call to duty.