{"id":2395096,"date":"2025-01-25T13:32:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T18:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-legislator-want-to-freeze-property-tax-levies-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-01-25T13:35:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T18:35:06","slug":"illinois-legislator-want-to-freeze-property-tax-levies-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-legislator-want-to-freeze-property-tax-levies-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois legislator want to freeze property tax levies &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fillinois-legislator-want-to-freeze-property-tax-levies-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2395096&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>an \u2064Illinois state \u200dlegislator, Rep. Brad halbrook, has proposed\u2064 a bill (House Bill 1497) aimed at freezing local \u200cgovernment property tax levies \u200dat their 2025 levels \u2064for the years\u200d 2026 to 2030. Halbrook argues that many local governments need to\u200c find ways to save money\u200b and\u2063 improve efficiency,\u200c especially given the persistent inflation\u2063 affecting taxpayers. He\u200b believes that if local governments \u200bhave not recently made cuts, they should evaluate their expenses.The proposal also addresses concerns\u2063 about local governments maximizing tax levies without\u2062 proper justification, perhaps leading \u2062to unnecessary accumulation\u2064 of \u200cfunds.<\/p>\n<p>Halbrook \u200cis also calling for the\u200d restoration of the Local Government \u2063Distributive Fund (LGDF) to its original\u2062 level of 10% of income \u200btax collections, which has been reduced\u200d to\u200c about 6%. This\u200d restoration is linked to his concerns \u200bover\u2062 rising budgets \u2062and property tax pressures in Illinois, which consistently ranks among the states\u200d with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/maine-city-taxpayers-may-lose-services-to-cover-migrant-housing-costs\/\" title=\"Maine City Taxpayers May Lose Services to Cover Migrant Housing Costs\">highest property taxes<\/a>. Additionally, he has committed to opposing new\u200b financial \u200dmandates on\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/live-715-pm-et-new-york-young-republican-club-black-caucus-speaker-series-with-attorney-tricia-lindsay\/\" title=\"LIVE NOW: NY Young Republican Club Black Caucus Speaker Series featuring Attorney Tricia Lindsay at 7:15 PM ET.\">public\u2063 school districts<\/a> or municipalities that could further exacerbate property tax increases. A recent study noted that Peoria and Rockford have the highest\u200b property tax rates\u200c in\u2063 the country.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Illinois legislator want to freeze property tax levies<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1949493\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>(The Center Square) &ndash;&nbsp; An Illinois state legislator introduced a bill that would freeze local government property tax levies at the 2025 amount for levy years 2026-2030.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, sponsors&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ilga.gov\/legislation\/billstatus.asp?DocNum=1497&amp;GAID=18&amp;GA=104&amp;DocTypeID=HB&amp;LegID=157567&amp;SessionID=114\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">House Bill 1497<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;and said nearly every local government needs to figure out how to save money, and they need to find efficiencies and stop unnecessary operations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;s going to be lots of opposition, but there&rsquo;s going to be lots of proponents. You &lsquo;ve had this double-digit inflation for the last five years, and taxpayers or property owners have got to have some relief,&rdquo; said Halbrook. &ldquo;My view is if an agency or a unit of government has not tried to cut any expenses ever or recently, they need to dig in and find some spots that they can cut some expenses somewhere.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Halbrook said whether the unit of government is in compliance with The Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) or not, there are units of government that are just maxing out their levy.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s under PTELL or 4.99%, without going to a truth in taxation hearing, they&rsquo;re just maxing those levies out,&rdquo; said Halbrook. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s units of government that are stacking up hundreds of thousands of dollars, and whether they&rsquo;re using it wisely or not wisely or they&rsquo;re just storing it up, this is a way to kind of grant some relief to property owners.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>PTELL limits the amount of tax extensions for non-home rule taxing districts.<\/p>\n<p>Halbrook said if enacted and a freeze is in effect, he will also demand the Local Government Distributive Fund managed by the state be restored to its original percentage of 10% of income tax collections.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The LGDF, the local government distributing fund, which is income taxes the state collects, and this is part of the state constitution [which] reads that 10% of that [income tax collections] is to come back to the local municipalities. Well, years past, that got rolled back to like 6%,&rdquo; said Halbrook. &ldquo;The budget has grown over $13 billion, over 30% faster than the rate of inflation. So why is it that they&rsquo;re not able to return that LGDF? Why aren&rsquo;t they able to return that back to the full 10%?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Halbrook said along with trying to get HB 1497 passed, he&rsquo;ll vote against new mandates on public school districts or municipalities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I mean, one that they could come with at any day, and I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s going to happen just because they can&rsquo;t, the supply isn&rsquo;t there, but they can say, &lsquo;every school district has to begin to phase out <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">internal combustion engine school buses<\/a>, and they have to be all EVs.&rsquo; Well, we know there&rsquo;s a dramatic increase in the price of those EV buses versus internal combustion engine buses,&rdquo; said Halbrook. &ldquo;Is it 50% more? Is it 100% more? What is that number? But whatever it is, it&rsquo;s going to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/europe-canada-closes-airspace-to-russian-civil-aviation\/\" title=\"Europe, Canada Closes Airspace to Russian Civil Aviation\">put added pressure<\/a> on that school budget and drive property taxes up.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Last month, a study by SmartAsset ranked Peoria and Rockford, Illinois, as numbers one and two in the country for the cities with the highest property taxes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Illinois is regularly in the top two for states with the highest property taxes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1949493\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1949493\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illinois lawmaker proposes freezing property tax levies (The Center Square) \u2013 An Illinois state representative has put forward a bill to maintain local government property tax levies at 2025 levels for the years 2026-2030. State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, who sponsors House Bill 1497, believes local governments must find ways to save money and improve efficiency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2395097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/money-istock-dollars-income-1024x683.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[5045,6413,4762,43071],"class_list":["post-2395096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-government","tag-illinois","tag-legislation","tag-property-tax"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/money-istock-dollars-income-1024x683.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395096"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2395100,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395096\/revisions\/2395100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2395097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}