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* Greg Hinz…
An unusual effort to pare Illinois’ much-hated property tax system appears to be dissolving amid partisan bickering, with the GOP leaders of both the House and Senate complaining that their members have been cut out of decisions made by the Legislature’s Property Tax Relief Tax Force.
Unless resolved, the dispute will complicate—and potentially kill—any serious effort to reduce property taxes as voters prepare to decide in November on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan to impose a graduated income tax.
In separate statements, House GOP Leader Jim Durkin and Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady both asserted that preliminary findings of the task force were not properly approved by the full panel and, as Brady put it, amount to “some members . . . circulating their thoughts.”
“Failure to follow proper process with task force consideration and debate of recommendations, along with a lack of many House GOP reform ideas, resulted in the House GOP co-chairs declining to endorse the draft final report,” Durkin wrote in an email yesterday to his members. “The final product was not properly considered or debated by the full task force.”
I really hate process arguments, but this task force has been a freak show since Day One. Just produce both a majority and a minority report and be done with it already.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 2:16 pm
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= Just produce both a majority and a minority report and be done with it already. =
And put both of them on a shelf somewhere to gather dust, like every other such report in the past.
Comment by cover Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 2:32 pm
== Just produce both a majority and a minority report and be done with it already. ==
Without anger, it’s hard to fundraise. Durkin’s approach allows anger at supposed Democratic gamesmanship.
A majority / minority report would merely say: “We disagree but they have more votes than us.”
Comment by Hamlet's Ghost Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 2:46 pm
The entire dynamic was window dressing and meeting for the sake of meeting for the onset.
Of course the GOP members aren’t being listened to . . . .the simple response to this matter is as Rich suggested . . . . .”we are not playing, here are our ideas in the attached minority report”.
Then air lift both reports to the Task Force island of misfit toys with all of the rest.
Comment by After Further Review Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 2:55 pm
Why do Republicans hate cutting property taxes?
Comment by Precinct Captain Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 2:56 pm
Just like all those Property Tax freezes approved in the Speaker’s chamber; socks on a pig meant for appearances only.
Comment by A Guy Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 3:02 pm
The purpose of a task force like this is to create a solution that everyone agrees to, and can then pass the legislature easily. If you don’t want to accomplish that goal, then don’t bother having a task force in the first place.
Comment by Just Me 2 Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 3:10 pm
I think this was created in good faith. Not sure how it got messed up but they really need to fix it. This is still the hottest political issue and making progress is good for everybody. Get to it.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 3:11 pm
The Dems needed the votes from Rep. Carrol and Rep. Yingling on the Progressive tax. This task force was their ask. Rep. Yingling got his 15 minutes of fame. They were never going to produce a meaningful report and certainly were not going to give the minority party a say in anything. Durkin should produce a minority report.
Comment by Nagidam Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 3:11 pm
If JB could pull off a property tax swap during his term, I would look past every other difference I have with him. It’s not the overall tax burden killing us, it’s the way they are collected with such a reliance on the property tax.
Comment by Shemp Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 3:27 pm
==If JB could pull off a property tax swap==
How would a property taxes swap work for retirees? What would they be swapping?
==It’s not the overall tax burden killing us==
Sure it is. If you shifted your entire property tax bill to your income taxes, how would you be better off? It’s a zero sum game.
Comment by City Zen Monday, Jan 6, 20 @ 4:52 pm
== If you shifted your entire property tax bill to your income taxes, how would you be better off? It’s a zero sum game.==
1.It would make the schools equally funded for one thing. Right now school districts in rich neighborhoods are better than school districts in poor neighborhoods because the rich homes collect more property tax.
2. Income tax, especially a graduated tax, would depend on your ability to pay. So a person in a house that has high property tax, say a retiree on a fixed income, wouldn’t be forced to sell and move. It would make areas more stable.
3. Some areas like Harvey are experiencing a feedback loop where people can’t afford the property taxes in their home, so they lose their homes, then everyone else has to pay more for their property tax so now they lose their homes, and Harvey ends up with a lot of homes they can’t sell because the property taxes are so high.
Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Wednesday, Jan 8, 20 @ 7:04 am