Timothy Carroll

“I grew up in suburban Oak Lawn. I went to grade school, high school, undergraduate and graduate school all in Illinois

“At age 23, I bought a home in Tinley Park and spent 15 years in that home, but this past summer my family and I moved to Indiana.”

“I didn’t have any kids when I bought the home, but there were good schools, and a good community, so I supported paying more in taxes at first.”

“After several years in the home, the taxes continued to increase, anywhere from $500 to $1,500 annually. I was getting extremely frustrated.”

“My wages don’t even go up that much.”

“The year after the recession, our home values went down significantly. My wife and I refinanced our mortgage in 2012.”

“I saw the appraisal sheet from the refinance, and it showed a significant disparity in the value of my home from the appraiser versus what the [Will County] tax assessor said it was worth.”

“I went to appeal my property taxes and won. But that same year they increased the levy amount, so my taxes still went up. It was only about an increase of $100, but to complete the appeal process, gain agreement only to have them change the levy amount was really frustrating.”

“Then, the state income tax went up to 4.95%.”

“Blow after blow after blow to our finances. I decided enough is enough.”

“I work in the private sector. If you run your business to the point where you don’t have any money and you’re borrowing and borrowing, eventually somebody’s going have to be accountable.”

“I couldn’t understand that, especially with the state. They would go over budget and fail to balance the budget year after year. How can you do that? There’s no accountability.”

“My personal fear was if I stayed too long in the state of Illinois, I wouldn’t be able to leave. I wouldn’t get the home value that I paid years earlier because the taxes were too high, and I’d be stuck essentially holding the bag for state government spending.”

“It just got increasingly frustrating and worrisome and eventually we decided we should look elsewhere, especially to other states that have their finances in order.”

“It felt like I was always trying to play catch up. The politicians had a blank checkbook to just take money from me. It became so frustrating that my wife and I discussed moving to Indiana.”

“I was paying about $11,000 for property taxes in Illinois. In Indiana, I pay about a third of that for a larger house on a larger lot with the same commute to work.”

“It was a no brainer.”

Timothy Carroll
Refinery senior environmental team lead
Chesterton, Indiana