Chicago Property Taxes
[Guest post by DRJ]
TaxProf Blog notices something fishy in Chicago — “property taxes in Chicago have increased an average of 9.6% this year” but not for some well-known politicians:
Barack Obama: 1.0% increase [Edit: But see JVW’s comment here.] Alexi Giannoulias (Illinois Treasurer): 1.0% Richard Daley (Chicago Mayor): 3.5% Rahm Emanuel (President Obama’s Chief of Staff): 3.7% Lisa Madigan (Illinois Attorney General): 4.4% Dan Hynes (Illinois Comptroller): 4.9%
At least it’s easy to spot the Chicago pecking order.
— DRJ
All animals are equal, but some pigs are more equal.
ropelight (2f5f37) — 11/1/2009 @ 6:07 pmProperty taxes are brutal in Chicago. We will pay over $12,000 in property taxes this year. I can only imagine what it would be in Chicago.
JD (b292bd) — 11/1/2009 @ 6:12 pmWelcome to Chicago and Cook County, where most of us pay exhorbitant taxes for the following outstanding services:
– trash pick – up (but Daley’s threatening to cut back on their work days, to cover the city’s budget shortfall)
– public schools (ranked among the worst in the nation among cities with over a million pop.)
– police (working w/o a contract since 2004, and Daley wants them to take three week’s of voluntary unpaid furloughs next year)
– fire (same deal)
– Alderman (who usually work about three days/week, 30 weeks/year and receive an average salary of $100K and do nothing but rubber – stamp whatever their King deigns to put in front of their noses while pigging out at the gov’t trough)
– our awesome Olympic Bid (EPIC FAIL, thank god)
– libraries (Daley’s threatening to cut back on the hours and days/week, of course)
*AND THE BEST PAID – OFF LACKEYS AND POLITICAL HACKS IN THE CIVILIZED WORLD!
Dmac (a964d5) — 11/1/2009 @ 6:13 pmAll animals are equal, but some pigs are more equal.
Upton Sinclair, meet George Orwell!
AD - RtR/OS! (57758f) — 11/1/2009 @ 6:15 pmFirst of all, all Chicago can do is raise the tax rate. The tax base is controlled by the Cook County Assessor and he does his best to keep the assessments low. To the extent that the Illinois legislature passes an equalizer — the Cook County Assessor’s assessment is increased by 2.3 times. Sometimes the assessor misses the mark. My taxes of about $7,500.00 went up by $125.00. My neighbor’s by $3,000.00.
nk (df76d4) — 11/1/2009 @ 6:33 pmAnd you guys wonder why Prop-13 here in CA is the current (sic) Third-Rail of state politics.
AD - RtR/OS! (57758f) — 11/1/2009 @ 6:49 pmChicago has nothing on California where ” The bargain between California’s government and the middle class is constantly being renegotiated to the disadvantage of the middle class.”
Chicago is also the soul of efficiency. My sister, about 10 years ago, got a notice that her home was about to be sold for delinquent taxes. Since she had faithfully paid the taxes on time for the 20 years she and her husband had owned the home, she was a bit alarmed. After an investigation worthy of Cold Case Files, she learned that she had been paying the taxes on the house next door for many years. Her tax bill was incorrect and nobody had ever bothered to ask her about it. No mention of whether the neighbors had also been paying or if they had paid hers (Unlikely or she would not have gotten the tax sale notice). Eventually, and not automatically, her taxes were finally credited to the correct property description.
Chicago rules.
Mike K (2cf494) — 11/1/2009 @ 6:55 pmIf the shoe fits, ya gotta dance with the one that brung ya.
ropelight (2f5f37) — 11/1/2009 @ 6:56 pm…a disadvantaged middle-class…
Yes, they keep screwing us; and, when it finally gets to the breaking point, we take some serious revenge:
AD - RtR/OS! (57758f) — 11/1/2009 @ 7:02 pmProp-13;
Term-Limits;
Voting out sitting SC Justices.
Mike K, check your link, it’s bouncing to Democratic U-ground and Bush.
Dana (e9ba20) — 11/1/2009 @ 7:06 pmTo be fair, for some other well-known politicians their taxes went up by as much as 33%.
Douglas2 (e6da54) — 11/1/2009 @ 7:23 pmThere was a program to keep some middle-of-the-flowchart calculation of assessments from going up more than 7%/year, made progressive by a cap above which you paid dearly for your increase in property value. They are phasing out the program by gradually lowering the cap. Depending upon where you fall in the value of your assessment and the change in value of your house, you could really get hit. Or not.
I suspect that the assesed value of the Obama home was already over the “cap”, so their assessments have been increasing with the market all along, and the market for that value of house has been soft for some time, so the increase in assessed value hasn’t been that much.
And you guys wonder why Prop-13 here in CA is the current (sic) Third-Rail of state politics.
I got a real charge out of that one.
Oh, the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the politicians, dutifully echoed by their stenographers in the press, the passage of Prop. 13 caused! Three decades later and they’ve still not reconciled themselves to it. They keep trying to sabotage Prop. 13, and have utterly failed, so far.
The link goes to an anti-Prop. 13 column by the LA Times’ David Lazarus, who’s their consumer columnist. Yup, a “consumer” columnist demanding higher taxes. One of Lazarus’ sources is the California Tax Reform Association, whose motto is “Fair Taxation for a Healthy Public Sector”.
There’s a supposedly nonpartisan movement for a state constitutional convention. One of the highest priorities will be getting rid of Prop. 13, depend on it.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 11/1/2009 @ 7:28 pmShorter Douglas2:
Douglas2 (e6da54) — 11/1/2009 @ 7:33 pmIf you implement a middle-class tax break, but then let it sunset:
Everyone will then claim you are raising the taxes on the middle-class without raising taxes on the rich.
Fair point, Douglas2, but if the rich man’s platform is a Robin Hood tax system that takes from the rich and redistributes it to the poor, the rich man’s property taxes (and those of his allies) should go up more than everyone else’s.
DRJ (dff2ca) — 11/1/2009 @ 7:38 pmDouglas2 and DRJ: The article from the Sun-Times linked in the TaxProf Blog says that Obama had not taken the 7% exemption the last two years, and that is why his tax is not rising as fast as others.
Dmac, do I see that you guys have 50 aldermen (uh, alderpersons) in Chicago? Goodness me, Los Angeles is, what, something like 30% larger by population than Chicago and they somehow manage with 70% fewer council members (15 total for L.A.). Of course, I am quite sure there are a number of neighborhood rabble-rousers out here who would love to see Los Angeles expand to a 50-member council.
JVW (d32e06) — 11/1/2009 @ 9:03 pmChicago Aldermen have “aldermanic privilege”. Kind of like barons. Actually, just like barons with Mayor Daley as the King.
And no, men and women are aldermen not alderpersons. It’s Chicago, not some f#$%^Y place.
nk (df76d4) — 11/1/2009 @ 9:10 pmGood catch, JVW. I added a link in the post to your comment.
DRJ (dff2ca) — 11/1/2009 @ 9:14 pmSorry about the link. It’s here.
The attacks on Prop 13 are as regular as the seasons. And it is about as amenable to change.
Mike K (2cf494) — 11/1/2009 @ 10:03 pmI pay $350 a year in property taxes, which offsets the long hot summers. And the winters are outstanding.
PatAZ (9d1bb3) — 11/1/2009 @ 10:24 pmDRJ, just a point of clarification. The “Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor” story is false. Robin Hood stole from the government and returned the money to the wrongfully-over-taxed poor (or something like that). He didn’t target rich citizens but rich government.
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 11/1/2009 @ 10:49 pmOkay, but many people remember it the other way. Do you have a better example I could use?
DRJ (dff2ca) — 11/1/2009 @ 10:54 pmNow you know why Bill Ayers never thought of bombing the Chicago City Council. He’d be helping America rather than hurting it.
PCD (1d8b6d) — 11/2/2009 @ 7:11 amSort of off-topic, but here’s a chart of the tax rates necessary to close the Federal deficit in 2012.
Enjoy your Change.
SPQR (26be8b) — 11/2/2009 @ 8:15 amRobin Hood was a reactionary nobleman fighting for the privileges of the nobility and against the rights of the common people. He was the Earl of something or other.
Prince John tried to limit the powers of the nobles and elevate the peasants while his bloodthirsty, homosexual brother, Richard the Lionhearted, was off molesting Arab children. But his barons proved too strong for him. The so-praised Magna Carta was in no way a win for human rights — it was a loss.
But isn’t it amazing how historical truth gets turned on its head in favor of romantic truth?
nk (df76d4) — 11/2/2009 @ 8:30 amThe gunfight at the OK Corral is another one. The Earps were basically pimps. Doc Holliday may or may not have had “consumption” but he was a terminal alcoholic. (He drank two quarts of whiskey a day and alcoholics throw up blood, too.) The gunfight at the OK Corral is his only documented instance of a gunfight and it started because his shaky finger slipped against the trigger of his shotgun killing two innocent brothers, the McCloweries.
But then Ned Buntline and Hollywood turned these drunks, pimps and murderers into folk heroes.
Not that they were not very brave drunks, pimps and murderers.
nk (df76d4) — 11/2/2009 @ 8:39 amLouis L’Amore had the best take on what the real stories behind the Western myths actually were composed of – I didn’t care for his novels, but his historical insights were unassailable.
Dmac, do I see that you guys have 50 aldermen (uh, alderpersons) in Chicago?
Sad but true – and every time the suggestion is made to reduce that body of bloviating wastage, the proposal is soundly defeated (surprise). Daley likes having them around, mostly to cover his backside when his cronies get sent off to the Federal pen for wanton corruption and fraud of the taxpayer’s largesse. But it’s never Daley’s fault, just some guys he barely knows – and in the meantime our tax rates only go up, no matter the economic reality.
Dmac (a964d5) — 11/2/2009 @ 8:49 amDaley lives in my neighborhood. I haven’t seen my bill yet, but I have been paying about 1% of actual value. It’s a pretty good deal for me. If they ever catch up to me and it goes up dramatically, I’m going to have to follow everyone else from Cook County who is moving to Indiana.
carlitos (481eaf) — 11/2/2009 @ 10:27 amDon’t worry, the County tax Necromancers catch up with everyone…eventually.
Dmac (a964d5) — 11/2/2009 @ 2:29 pmComment by carlitos — 11/2/2009 @ 10:27 am
AD - RtR/OS! (83414c) — 11/2/2009 @ 2:41 pmWhen you say 1%, is that of market value, or assessed value? And, is there a difference in IL/Cook Co?
Indiana was a tax refuge for Chicagoans when I was a kid and that was a looong time ago. Our neighbor had his car registered in Indiana to avoid Chicago taxes and he would park it in his garage to keep the cops from seeing the license plate.
Mike K (2cf494) — 11/2/2009 @ 2:48 pmSorry, by “actual” I meant “market” value. I think that my assessed value is around 60% of market value. Chicago is in Cook County is in Illinois.
carlitos (481eaf) — 11/2/2009 @ 3:06 pmSo, are property taxes levied on a percentage of the assessed value, or of the market value.
AD - RtR/OS! (83414c) — 11/2/2009 @ 3:39 pmHere in the land of Prop-13, taxes are set as 1% of the previous sale price (market) with a max adjustment of a 2% increase/yr of the tax, not counting add-on bond issues or the dreaded Mello-Roos add-on.
% of assessed value. The big increases come from when they re-assess and your value goes up. There are some protections for seniors in terms of a ceiling for increases, but I’m no expert.
carlitos (481eaf) — 11/2/2009 @ 3:40 pmMike K – My accountant just moved his business from a Chicago (Cook County) suburb into Indiana. His cost / square foot went way down and his taxes went from 10% (!) to 2%. 10% of assessed value per year is highway robbery.
carlitos (481eaf) — 11/2/2009 @ 3:43 pmYeah, that’s what caused Prop-13 back in ’78…
AD - RtR/OS! (83414c) — 11/2/2009 @ 3:45 pmSeniors and others on fixed incomes were being reassessed right out of their homes,
and the legislature was sitting on a pot of money (one of the few times CA was in surplus) and refused to do anything.
They didn’t like the cure prescribed by the Doctor, but they swallowed the medicine to save their jobs.