Linda J. in Logan Square: You can’t keep killing us, the middle class, you can’t

Linda owns a 3,125 square foot house in Chicago that currently is assessed at $278,000.

“I’ll be 66 in another week,” Linda said. “If I wasn’t still working, I’ll be screwed. Even at retirement age, I’m getting my social security but I still have to work and I’m working two jobs.”

She purchased her home in 1992 for $45,700, or $82,000 in today’s dollars. Now she is afraid she'll be priced out of the city by high property taxes. 

“I can’t afford to continue to live in Chicago,” Linda said. “There is no way. Chicago is going to rich or poor. There is going to be no in-between. I grew up here.”

“I can’t afford to continue to live in Chicago,” Linda said. “There is no way. Chicago is going to rich or poor. There is going to be no in-between. I grew up here.”

Over the past decade Linda’s property taxes have more than doubled, from $2,718 to $6,005.

“If it wasn’t for work, there is no way I could afford the little mortgage I have plus the property taxes plus gas, electric phone,” she said. “There is no way I could afford it all and still be able to eat.”

Linda currently pays about two percent of the $278,000 Cook County claims her home is worth, which she claims is incorrect.

“They need to do a percentage of a true value,” she said. “They have my house listed as having a full basement. I have a crawl space. I don’t have a full basement and I’ve argued this for years. They need to do a true assessment.”

Linda has paid about $43,000 in property taxes over the past ten years – about what she originally paid for the home.

“You can’t keep killing us, the middle class, you can’t,” she said. “Because you’re going to kill us right out of your town and you won’t have a middle class. You’re going to be Detroit.”

Indiana has a hard 1 percent cap on property taxes. This means local governments are not allowed under state law to charge homeowner’s more than 1 percent of their home’s assessed value per year. The average property tax rate for the state of Indiana is 0.89 percent. Meanwhile the average property tax rate in Illinois is 2.3 percent.

If Linda lived in Indiana the most she could be charged in property taxes would be $2,780 per year or $3,225 less than what she currently pays in Illinois.