(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Even Governor Pritzker might agree with you that property taxes are too darn high.
And that’s because neither he nor the Illinois legislature have anything to do with them, and are left up to units of local government to decide.
“Property taxes are not determined by the State of Illinois; rather, by local governments, indeed local units of government, including school boards, park boards, library boards, municipalities, etc.,” said Pritzker. “I think people sometimes get confused. I know the Republican Party in Illinois is quite confused and thinks that this is a state issue, when it is actually a local issue.”
While property taxes largely fund local schools and other governmental entities, Pritzker says the state is chipping in more toward education funding, too.
“We’ve now gone from about 24 percent, to approaching 40 percent of school funding coming from the state,” said Pritzker, at an unrelated event Monday in Chicago. “One of the purposes of that is to alleviate the burden on local governments, on local school boards, and on people who are paying property taxes locally.”
Pritzker says local school districts, in his words, “didn’t take the hint” and pass on any sort of property tax relief.
Many of those schools say the state isn’t providing a sustainable level of funding.
Pritzker’s comments come as former Governor Pat Quinn calls for a constitutional amendment to provide property tax relief to most homeowners, at the expense of millionaires and billionaires, helping to fund education.
