Soaring prices for food, gas and other household items coupled with annual holiday spending put additional financial pressure on so many of us as we headed into the final weeks of the year. That’s why the recent spikes in property tax bills, which rose 6.6% across Chicago, were especially unwelcome for so many Chicagoans.
Studies show one reason for the increase: the uneven tax burden across the city and Cook County. In the 2021 reassessment, the increase in downtown assessments was offset by other assessment decreases. Chicagoans were caught in the middle.
Now, many landlords, small businesses and homeowners face sizable tax increases they simply cannot afford. Now more than ever, we need a strong City Council whose members understand this problem, are prepared to develop data-driven solutions to help lessen the burden on taxpayers and are willing to do what it takes to create change.
My career has centered around public policy and community advocacy. I have too often witnessed how a lack of affordable housing hurts families, many of whom are struggling to stay in homes their parents and grandparents owned.
Others face being priced out of their apartments because landlords are forced to pass property tax increases on to their tenants. Still others have told me how they cannot afford to become a homeowner at all, an important way to build wealth for the future.
And we have all seen too many small businesses forced to close over the past few years, leaving our streets riddled with empty storefronts.
To make matters worse, Chicagoans are being asked to absorb sharp tax increases without any apparent payoff. Residents feel they are not seeing improved city services, safer streets or more efficient government. How tax dollars are spent should be connected to how we live. Taxpayers should know, for example, how many traffic lights were repaired or how many public safety officers are in the neighborhood.
Ultimately, property taxes are a math problem we must solve if we want the fabric of our neighborhoods to remain intact. All ideas should be on the table.
Solving the TIF puzzle
For one, the City Council must evaluate our local Tax Increment Financing districts (TIFs) to better understand what they are funding and whether they are still appropriate.
When I served as chief of staff to then-Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, I co-authored an extensive paper on TIFs, and I know they can be a complicated and contentious issue. From my research, I also know there are several key places to begin looking for potential reforms that could have property tax implications.
First, TIFs have become a foregone conclusion for major development projects. But we must make sure that TIFs are only set up in areas that truly meet the criteria for being designated as blighted. In areas that don’t meet this criteria, the natural growth in taxable value would have occurred without the development. If a TIF district were created there, the taxable value captured by the TIF district would, in effect, be pulled from governmental taxing bodies — forcing them to raise taxes.
Second, there needs to be better representation on TIF review boards to ensure the eligibility criteria is met.
Third: Chicagoans, just like they have access to the budgets for basic services, should have better access to information about TIF expenditures, not just through complicated annual reports. A comprehensive, accessible report, providing information on how TIFs are created, where the money goes and greater oversight of surplus TIF funds, is needed.
As I walk my community block by block, building by building, speaking with those most likely to be in trouble since the latest property tax bills in Uptown, Buena Park and Lakeview, I am reminded that our homes are where we build our families and our dreams. The burden put on Chicagoans through high property taxes and subsequently higher rents is making those dreams unobtainable.
Our small businesses used to be where our immigrant communities could flourish, where talents could be explored and where families could create generational wealth while creating a diverse landscape of entrepreneurs that make our community so special.
Unfortunately, the city’s property tax burden threatens that fragile framework. Let’s rebuild it together.
Kimberly Walz is a community advocate with public, private and non-profit sector experience. She is a candidate for alderperson in the 46th Ward.
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