Mike L.: I get no direct benefit from 75 percent of my property tax bill.

Mike L. owns a 2,668 square foot, 4-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom Rolling Meadows home that is currently assessed at $406,450.

“We’ve lost about $250,000 in equity and our property taxes are about 4,000 higher [than they were when the house was purchased],” Mike said. “It’s forced us to put off decisions, particularly relocation, and updates to the house.”

Mike took possession of the home in 2005 when it was worth around$640,000, or $826,284 in today’s dollars. He has paid $132,474 in property taxes since 2005, more than 20 percent of the original value of his home.

“The decline in value combined with the rise in property taxes makes a good argument to leave,” Mike said. “The flip side is it makes it a property that is difficult to sell.”

“The decline in value combined with the rise in property taxes makes a good argument to leave,” Mike said. “The flip side is it makes it a property that is difficult to sell.”

Mike is currently paying $11,337 per year in property taxes on his home, about 2.7 percent of the Cook County Assessor claimed value of $406,450.

“As an older couple we get no benefit [from our money going to the schools],” Mike said. “Our kids are gone. The argument has been made repeatedly to ever-fund the school systems because the value they bring to the homes, but I’m not seeing it. I get no direct benefit from 75 percent of my property tax bill. I’m not seeing the value benefit.”

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.

“The Illinois Legislature enacted a cap years ago and every taxing district found a way around it,” Mike said.  “A challenge we have in Illinois is that the 1970 Constitutional changes created these multiple taxing districts so that a homeowner or taxpayer is truly hard-pressed to monitor and participate in how each of those taxing districts is spending our money and budgeting for the spending of our money.”

If Mike lived in Indiana the most he could be charged in property taxes would be $4,064 per year or $7,273 less than what he currently pays in Illinois.

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