Cook County’s poor housing recovery is a national outlier: While home prices nationwide still have yet to return to their pre-recession peak, they are down just 5% since 2007. To put Cook County’s housing plight in perspective, its current decline in average home values is an alarming 500% worse than the nation as a whole.
The biggest factor driving rising property taxes? Unsustainable growth in pension costs for government workers. Pension liabilities have risen faster than taxpayers’ ability to pay, forcing state and local governments to constantly scramble for new sources of revenue – often in the form of property tax hikes.
This diminishes homeowners’ standard of living, and potentially their home equity, while jeopardizing government workers’ retirement security.
With constitutional pension reform, Illinois can protect workers’ already-earned benefits while slowing the accrual of future benefits not yet earned – and eliminate the need for endless property tax hikes. |