Letter: School taxes unfair for seniors
I read your May 6 article "This time, homeowners may get higher tax bills." It is not surprising as Illinois gallops to become the highest tax haven in the country.
I don't want to get on a pedestal and rant and rave, I do, but it wouldn't accomplish anything. Instead, I hope all who read this will consider how unfair property taxes are to my age 65-plus generation.
If you will look at your property tax bill, you will note the biggest expenditure is for elementary and secondary schools amounting to about 70% of your bill.
My property taxes have now risen to $7,200 per year and my support of schools is about $5,000. I am 79 years old and have not used a school system for my family for the past 30 years. I don't think we seniors should be forced to support school systems for which we have absolutely no benefit.
In Illinois we do have property tax relief, but it falls short in helping other than those seniors who are financially strained. However, these do not protect most seniors from losing their home due to an inability to pay all of their property taxes.
We are now commonly living into our 90s. If property taxes continue to escalate at rate of 5% to 6%, many of us will find we simply can't afford to stay in our homes. This could subject us to a tax sale of our home by the county or to an investor.
There have been some truly heart-breaking stories of people losing homes over the nonpayment of even small amounts of their tax bill. There is currently a case before the Supreme Court where an elderly widower is suing to get her home back over a very small unpaid tax bill.
All of us seniors need to contact our state representatives and state senators and tell them we need to modify the property tax laws eliminating that portion of our tax bill earmarked for schools. In addition, we should demand they modify the ability of our state to seize our homes through tax sale auctions or sales to investors over small amounts of unpaid property taxes.
Mike Dressendorfer
Antioch