2 new Illinois property taxes laws fail to offer taxpayers real relief

Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently approved two laws intended to spur change in the way property taxes work in Illinois. They are old ideas that will provide more show than relief.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker just signed two bills into law that aim to address property taxes in the state, but neither will bring the reform Illinoisans deserve.

Senate Bill 2936 allows home rule municipalities to provide abatements for newly remodeled homes. Senate Bill 3455 commissions a study on the entire property tax system in the state.

SB 2936 would allow municipal governments to abate property taxes for newly remodeled single-family residences up to the value of the alteration. This policy would provide added incentives for homeowners to invest money in their homes and increase the value of their property.

It would not reduce the property taxes governments demand. It simply shifts the burden to those who did not make improvements to their homes. This is not a solution to the problem of high property taxes.

SB 3455 commissions the Illinois Department of Revenue to study the entire property tax system in the state, including a comprehensive review of assessments, collections, exemptions and the tax levies themselves. It is to look at the classification system used by Cook County as compared to the system used by the rest of the state. The law allows the department to make recommendations that will improve the system.

If that sounds familiar, it is because it is roughly the same mandate Pritzker gave to the Property Tax Relief Task Force created by SB 1932 in 2019 just after he took office. The task force put out a draft report in 2021 recommending various changes in policy, including local government consolidation, more state funding for education and expanding the sales tax base.

Few of the task force’s recommendations have been seriously followed up on. The report ignored the No. 1 driver of property taxes in Illinois: overpromised public pensions.

The statistics reflect the failure of reform in Illinois.

Illinois has the second-highest property taxes in the country, taxing Illinois residents more than five states combined. Illinoisans are the most burdened by housing costs of all Midwesterners. Property taxes rose nearly $4 billion under Pritzker’s administration from 2019 to 2022, despite these symbolic efforts to tackle the problem.

While abating property taxes for new home improvements and studying the system for its fairness and effectiveness may look like positive developments, neither do anything to reduce property taxes overall. Instead, these bills are more of the same: changing policy around the edges and discussing solutions without taking action to address the root causes of high property taxes.

If state leaders want to get serious about the ever-increasing tax bills homeowners are seeing, they need to finally address the unsustainable cost of public pensions through meaningful constitutional pension reform. Anything less will be nothing but political posturing.