Two-thirds of your property taxes in Illinois go for funding public education. Not surprisingly, poorer areas don’t seem to get enough funding for their schools. (Illinois criticized over school funding equity, October 3)
If they take money from wealthier areas to give to the
poorer ones, then property taxes will go even higher. You may say that the wealthy can afford
it. But property taxes aren’t based on
your income. Property taxes don’t take
into account a person’s ability to pay for them.
People retire or lose jobs and then live on fixed incomes or
their savings, but property taxes just keep going up. People shouldn’t have to move because of high
property taxes.
I have proposed a solution to this for decades.
Let the state determine a per student allocation for public
education. Raise this through the income
tax. This must be kept separate from the
general income tax in every way. Local
school districts would be allowed to raise additional taxes however they
will. This plan will reduce overall
property taxes and equitably fund all our public schools.
We must also allow parents who send their kids to private
schools a deduction on their taxes for their expenses up to the amount they
would have paid for public schools.