Vic L.: My taxes are $10,500 right now but where are they going to be four or five years from now?

Vic owns a 2,515-square-foot Woodridge home that is currently assessed at $474,600.

Vic took possession of the home in 2003 when it was worth around $350,080, or $479,735.17 in today’s dollars. He has paid approximately $133,603 in property taxes since 2003, around a third of the original value of his home.

Vic’s annual property tax bill has tripled since 2003.

“I think I paid about $10,500 or $10,600 this year…way too much,” Vic said. “That’s ridiculous. I’m not the only one feeling the pinch.”

“I think I paid about $10,500 or $10,600 this year…way too much,” Vic said. “That’s ridiculous. I’m not the only one feeling the pinch.”

Vic is currently paying $11,043 per year in property taxes on his home, about 2.3 percent of the DuPage County Assessor claimed value of $474,600.

“It doesn’t give me disposable income that I’d to spend on other things,” Vic said. “I have to budget to pay our taxes. We have to budget something like $1,100 a month that we shouldn’t have to spend. $1,100 a month buys a lot of stuff….I should be looking at maybe $200 or $300  a month that I would have to budget not $1,100. I mean, you have to budget some amount of money towards your property taxes but not this amount. I should have probably an extra $800 a month to spend that I’m spending on taxes.”

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.

“[Politicians spend tax money] poorly. If you look at the other states, they charge a fraction of what we do and they still have properly funded schools and pension liability,” Vic said.

If Vic lived in Indiana the most he could be charged in property taxes would be $4,746 per year or $6,297 less than what he currently pays in Illinois.

“My wife and I will hopefully retire in four years, maybe five and we’ve already decided [to leave],” Vic said. “We’ll be living on social security and I just think it’s ridiculous to give the state that amount of taxes while you are retired. My taxes are $10,500 right now but where are they going to be four or five years from now?”