S.M.: I’m struggling to pay the taxes.

S.M. owns a 1,019 square foot, 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom Glendale Heights home that is currently assessed at $165,810.

“I’m struggling to pay the taxes,” S.M. said. “We haven’t even been able to pay the first part of them yet. This has been the past couple of years where we've really struggled to be able to pay them.”

S.M. took possession of the home in 1984 when it was worth around $68,440, or $166,284 in today’s dollars. She has paid $81,679 in property taxes since 2000, more than 119 percent of the original value of her home.

“I’d like to leave Illinois, but my husband doesn’t want to,” S.M. said.

“I’d like to leave Illinois, but my husband doesn’t want to,” S.M. said.

S.M. is currently paying $5,844 per year in property taxes on her home, about 3.5 percent of the DuPage County Assessor claimed value of $165,810.

“We have to work and pay toward our own pensions, but I don’t feel we should have to work and pay toward theirs,” S.M. said.

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 one percent hard cap would help a lot,” S.M. said.

If S.M. lived in Indiana the most she could be charged in property taxes would be $1,658 per year or $4,186 less than what she currently pays in Illinois.

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