Mike Steffen has never been a fan of much of what Mike Madigan has to say, but the House speaker has taken things to a whole new level of inanity, the Rock Island County Republican chairman said recently.
Madigan, a Democrat, recently told WGN that he doesn’t think all Illinois taxpayers deserve a major property tax cut and instead wants one with a much more targeted approach — one Steffens presumes would primarily only be to the benefit of his constituents.
“I don’t like much of anything that comes out of Madigan’s mouth,” Steffen told the Rock Island Today. “I’m much more in agreement with [Gov. Bruce] Rauner’s plan to freeze real estate taxes. With the other way, people are leaving the state in droves, and it’s become a 'last one out turn off the lights' kind of situation.”
Illinois State House Speaker Mike Madigan
With the nonpartisan Tax Foundation predicting Illinois could be on its way to becoming the state with the highest levels of property taxes, things get could worse before they get better.
Over the last two-plus decades, residential property taxes have grown 3.3 times faster than the state’s median household income and now consume 6.4 percent of a typical household's income.
In addition, since 1999 almost every county in the state has experienced steep increases in its residents’ average property-tax burden, the Illinois Policy Institute reported.
Researchers have that concluded some of the biggest factors fueling the persistent upticks are government pensions, government health care and worker's compensation costs.
While House Bill 4224 would freeze property taxes at current levels as part of Rauner’s "Turnaround Agenda," the institute lamented that it’s not enough: Property taxes would have to remain frozen for at least the next 28 years just to return Illinois residents to property-tax levels of the 1990s.
“Rauner needs the help of the legislature,” Steffen said. “We need to win enough votes and seats to knock Madigan off his pedestal.”
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