Barry F.: It’s the circus that is going down in Springfield
Barry owns a Des Plaines condo that is currently assessed at $122,560.
Barry took possession of the home in 2000 when it was worth around $170,000, or $248,924.62 in today’s dollars. He has paid $33,351 in property taxes since 2007, about a fifth of the original value of his home.
“As an association, we hire an attorney every three years when they redo the taxes<“ Barry said. “We are playing the game that we have to in order to get the taxes reduced.”
Barry is currently paying $2,609 per year in property taxes on his home, about 2.1 percent of the Cook County Assessor claimed value of $122,560.
Barry is currently paying $2,609 per year in property taxes on his home, about 2.1 percent of the Cook County Assessor claimed value of $122,560.
“It’s the direct result of everything,” Barry said.“It’s the property taxes. It’s the circus that is going down in Springfield.”
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.
“I think we need to reduce the amount of taxing bodies in the state of Illinois,” Barry said. “If you take a state like Texas that is much larger and has a higher population, they have maybe three quarters of the number of taxing districts that we have here. We need to get rid of the townships. That’s waste. I think that the school districts could have some consolidation. They could be combined. I also think that something has to addressed with the pensions.”
If Barry lived in Indiana the most he could be charged in property taxes would be $1,225.60 per year or $1,383.40 less than what he currently pays in Illinois.
“I’m leaving,” Barry said. “I completed an MBA last year and I’m in the IT field and I am looking at the Northern suburbs of Dallas to relocate to.”
