SPRINGFIELD - Governor Rauner issued the following statement as many homeowners throughout Illinois face a deadline today to pay property taxes:
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"Illinois residents are being hit with record property tax increases in communities all around the state even though they already pay the highest property taxes in the nation.
“People are literally being driven from their homes by the failure of the General Assembly to enact the reforms that would stop this unnecessary destruction of the American Dream.
“I think every day about the moms and dads who are cutting important things from their family budgets, from summer vacations to school activities to youth sports to tutoring and more. Parents are forced into tough choices because the leaders in Springfield have failed once again.
"Since 1990 property taxes have risen 3.3 times faster than Illinois median household incomes. Today, in many communities, particularly the south Cook County suburbs, property taxes now exceed mortgage payments.
"My proposals will stop the harm out-of-control property tax increases cause families and businesses. When I talk to people throughout Illinois, they tell me that they feel they have lost control of their own property and are simply renting it from the government. That is not fair. We must pass the reforms I have outlined to rein in and then lower property taxes."
Gov. Rauner has proposed a series of policies that would bring relief to property owners on property taxes. These include reforming our broken pension system, enacting real workers’ job and injury protection reform, and empowering local governments across the state to control costs. These and other reforms will lower property taxes and will also grow the economy. Only with these reforms and strong economic growth can local communities become less reliant on property taxes.
