Face it: Property taxes are forcing Illinoisans out of their homes

You left out a huge factor - what are people being taxed for?

Infrastructure? Apply use fees, not property tax. Water, sewer and electric have monthly bills based on usage. Roads have fuel taxes based on usage. Fire and police have direct taxation of the homes in their district.

Other govt programs such as the public library, public parks, courthouse and jail maintenance, general overhead - apply a flat tax to everyone.

This is not difficult.

You complain about taxing the wealthy for 100% of what they earn, property taxes are paid by people with paper wealth but not real wealth. You think one is unfair and the other is not?

Read my previous - and stop your whining and think.

 

The evidence is the proof. The evidence of failing Democrat run cities. You're the one who must prove why they fail.

 

so once again you're back to posting one-liners that don't address anything I said, you just felt you had to respond with anything to save face, in this case you went to your good ole reliable backup of "democrats" blah blah blah... you realize the vast majority of my postings on this website absolutely lambaste democrats??? so if you're about to take the stance I must be a democrat to suggest what I have suggested, you are sorely mistaken...

what I think is shocking is you have offered NOTHING as a solution for this couple, while I offered them $500,000 in TAX FREE gains, in their hand, in their pocket, in their bank account, true actual profit, real wealth, actualized gains, real money... and you are sitting and spinning with the same old tired responses of "I don't understand or like what you said, so I'm going to call you a democrat, and not offer any actual advice or solution, just more rhetoric so I feel like I'm involved in this discussion"... thats all you did...

maybe rather than try to pound your political chest and feel like your rhetoric is a solution or sound financial advice, maybe consider this couple as a real set of human beings who have to make a REAL life choice, and you should give them the best possible advice for THEM, and not for your political desires to spout off without actually improving their lives immediately... like I said, with my advice, they pocket $500,000 TAX FREE, with your advice, they're still scratching their heads and nothing changes...

which advice would YOU go with, that could actually be realized TODAY... do nothing as you advise, or pocket $500,000 TAX FREE... come on genius, which one would YOU do...

I hope you take my advice and pocket the $500,000 TAX FREE, because it would be a shame to see you when you're old and retired and saying, if only I took the $500,000 TAX FREE money like Darkbane suggested and then reinvested that in other things and used it to grow even more... don't be a fool, its the logical financially sound advice... stop using emotions like a democrat!!!!!

 

I think everyone can make better choices in life...

 

If you read my post it says 'earmarked' which means tax money that ONLY goes to those areas which they are 'earmarked'.

My guess is property taxes go into a general fund and are spent any way the County wishes.

My point was, again, if property taxes are going into the general fund, for general expenditures, then they might as well be collected through a sales/excise tax...

 

It doesn't make any difference if people can get a $500K windfall by selling if they are not interested in selling. No form of taxation should place average people in a position to lose their homes. Where I live the average property tax is just shy of $7000/year...this is impossible for people on fixed incomes! Thank goodness Prop 13 is in place...

 

You're harping about what to do when people have NO other options! The discussion is about property taxes escalating to the point they are driving people out of their homes. From my perspective this is unacceptable and some dialogue helps understand the issues and other options. Telling people to sell and move then chest pounding about being a 'better' financial advisor is not solving any problem nor contributing to a meaningful dialogue...

 

the method in which you collect them, affects different classes of people in a vastly different way... in this case, sales taxes negatively affect the poor far greater than the wealthy... believe it or not I am a huge fan of "truth in spending" which seems to be what you suggest... but thats also why I support property taxes as the sole method, mostly because they won't be able to screw around with it in a sneaky hidden way, it will be VERY in your face to EVERY american immediately, rather than the usual hearings that nobody attends and nobody sees all the sneaky ways they raise taxes... it will likely lock politicians into being the ones against ever raising property taxes or never get elected into office, because the first one who suggests it, will have someone run against them promising not to... but it also more or less sticks with inflation, as home prices rise, since its based on a percentage, government will get more money to tackle issues, but in economic recession, it will restrict flow of money into government, acting not only as a method of immediate control of their spending, but also act as an IMMEDIATE tax relief for the economy, which means its essentially a built in tax break in economic times to help spur the recovery since all americans will receive the benefit... there are so many reasons property taxes are the best...

 

and like I have confronted a dozen different people in this thread now... SO WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION WITHOUT SIMPLY SHIFTING TAXES FROM ONE FORM OF COLLECTION TO THE OTHER... not a single one of you idiots has come up with a solution other than to cut taxes... nobody has said how they will make up the vast amounts collected... we're not dealing with tiny numbers here, property taxes make up the majority of budgets for communities... do you understand just how much a city or county depends on the property taxes collected in most areas? its sometimes in excess of half their money for their annual budgets... (*)(*)(*)(*)ING GIVE A SOLUTION DON'T JUST SIT HERE AND (*)(*)(*)(*)(*) ABOUT IT BEING A PROBLEM... but nobody is giving REAL solutions... they just say cut taxes cut taxes cut taxes... okay now you cut taxes, so where the (*)(*)(*)(*) do you make all that money up... don't just give me the usual bull(*)(*)(*)(*) rhetoric you would magically make it up here or there... SHOW ME THE PROOF AND THE AMOUNTS, don't just keep feeding me lines I have to trust you and it'll magically work out... SHOW ME YOUR MATH... but you won't show me your math, because you've likely never looked at an actual budget, you've never actually done the math, you've never actually attempted to shift taxes before in a realistic world where it has consequences and people will respond and challenge your math and its effectiveness or who it will harm and show you're making it worse instead of better...

PROVE ME WRONG LIKE I HAVE REQUESTED EVERY OTHER (*)(*)(*)(*)ER IN THIS THREAD TO DO... but you won't... you'll tuck tail and hide and not prove a thing...

meanwhile, while you scratch your ass, I had the couple pocket $500,000 TAX FREE dollars, while your finger grows in stink from your ass...

 

Democrats treat other people like their own personal piggy-bank. They feel entitled to your property and will not take no for an answer. I'll be leaving Illinois eventually. A shame, because I grew up here and love a lot of things about the culture and the geography. But the Democrats are slowly ruining it for everyone because of their insatiable greed.

 

Why should a government be entitled to $15,000 a year for a piece of residential property? What value is the government adding to justify that?

Why are people so blind to the fundamental problem we face today of runaway government and runaway taxes to finance the runaway debt that it incurs?

- - - Updated - - -

Not just Democrats, but statists and collectivists in general. Everyone becomes a donor to the state collective.

 

That's true in general, but Illinois specifically is and has been a Democrat stronghold for decades. And they are bankrupting the state with outrageous, unsustainable spending on bloated government unions. I went to "public" schools in Illinois and I remember some of my teachers making over six figures for a job that entailed regurgitating simplistic factoids out of a textbook. They get about 80% pension until they die. That means some of these teachers will be making upwards of $80,000 a year for doing absolutely nothing. That is more than a first-year chemical engineer makes while on the job. Illinois is what happens when Democrats get free reign. Bankruptcy, economic malaise, epic corruption, general incompetence, etc.

 

Schools. Sheesh. State taxes pay for local schools and roads. I'll bet you complain about crumbling infrastructure too.

 

Schools waste money in their turn.

 

You wanted to know what the taxes paid for.

 

Then I'm staying in my apt

 

That can be abused by the government. Ever looked at tax values? Ask them if they'll buy it for that amount.

 

That can be abused by the government. Ever looked at tax values? Ask them if they'll buy it for that amount.

 

you know what, you're right, there are NO solutions for anything, lets just give up, and focus on all the reasons why its impossible, lets throw and make up every conspiracy we can think of, despite it having little to no impact or realistic reasoning for discussion, lets just give up now because its worthless trying to find something better, because everything will have a fault even if we just make them up and the reality is it likely wouldn't happen, all hope is lost, let the bells rings for our funerals now... who cares if the method improves things by close to a trillion dollars in economic compliance direct and indirect costs, who cares if we make a multiple fold differenc ein the lives of commerce and citizens alike, who cares if we gain massive benefits we could all reap the rewards from, because you found one tinfoil hat conspiracy to cling to...

ALL IS LOST GIVE UP NOW!!!!

what a (*)(*)(*)(*)ing tool you are...

 

I'm a realist.
The solution is checks and balances. A fixed sales tax rate. If government needs more, they have an incentive to increase the income of its citizens, don't they? Some ways would be lower licensing and business taxes, and property taxes, which would encourage small business to hire more people.
The problem is that they have the authority to increase taxes at will, regardless of whether they waste the money, or line their own pockets in the process.
Trump is on the right track with better trade and immigration policies.

 

do you genuinely believe lowering business taxes creates jobs? or does it just allow them to pocket the money for shareholders, be very careful how you answer that, I've owned many companies and I belong to multiple business associations, as well as having an economics degree, so don't try to think you're going to pull one over on me... when people talk about taxes and regulations helping companies, it ONLY helps when thats the burden being faced, like we had back during the Reagan era when taxes and regulations were preventing growth in america, today growth in america is pretty much tapped out, and the growth american companies get today is international growth and expansion, so cutting taxes in america doesn't add much to international growth and many industries have reached the plateau in american growth...

lowering cost of living is the best way to create growth, because then our consumers will consume more, which they can't do today unless you give them someone elses wealth currently, because the market as it exists today is simply worked through and there is nothing left on the lower and middle incomes to gain for companies, hence the current stagnation we have today, because cost of living continues to climb and reduces their ability to spend... lower business taxes won't change that, the only way you could change that with taxes is lowering them on the poor and middle class... well since the poor pay so little in taxes, and the middle class is increasing becoming more of the same, changing their taxes won't have any additional benefit to grow the economy since they will receive a continuing lower benefit from lowering taxes... you MUST lower cost of living in order to create additional growth in those categories that will have any meaningful impact...

this is why I say sales taxes are regressive and the most harmful to these two classes of people... getting rid of those fee's on every phone, gas, electric, etc etc bill will act as a cost of living reduction to them, getting rid of the sales tax on gasoline for their cars will act as a cost of living reduction to them, getting rid of the subsidies to farmers to essentially (in the case of my state recently) dump or give away to food shelters tens of thousands of pounds of cheese will keep prices up, when if we allowed that product to hit the market it would have reduced milk and cheese prices for the end consumers, which ultimately acts as a cost of living reduction when they save more on food... but you see the current system is designed to give politicians the power to manipulate and pick winners and losers, rather than letting the PEOPLE pick their own fate...

but once again I notice you didn't cite specific numbers, you didn't demonstrate how you would shift dollars, you just like I said you would, regurgitated the same old tired rhetoric which is not a solution... give us the numbers, show me you're right and I'm wrong, show me how raising sales taxes helps the lower and middle classes... it doesn't... it keeps them down in this system, and nothing you've suggested without providing any numbers on top of it, would ultimately lift them up and move them forward...

this is why we need to do away with the IRS and the current tax code, to realize the trillion plus in compliance spending by not just corporations but individual citizens, and it would restore power to the people, rather than the politicians manipulating the tax code to win elections and retain power, but long after they are gone and replaced by someone who promised more to someone else, we're still left with all the bloated garbage hundreds of millions are left struggling to work their way through, at a high cost... lowering cost of living is the key to economic success in this country, not the tired old rhetoric from each side... power to the people, not to the politicians...

P.S. still waiting, give me a set number on the sales tax you want, give me a set number on the business taxes you want cut, lets do the math and prove it rather than spin in your rhetoric...

 

OP, it is like that in a lot of other locals. Tent life may be in the future for many Americans

https://danielteolijr.files.wordpre...all-v25-2015-daniel-d-teoli-jr-mr1.jpg?w=1200

For those below middle class homeless then it is a tarp.

https://danielteolijr.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/homeless-l-a-2015-daniel-d-teoli-jr.jpg

 

Last time I checked...ALL Americans are responsible to fund the government which they demand! ALL Americans pay excise and sales taxes today so how much is paid tomorrow is determined by how much the government's need to function. Funding government requires ALL taxpayers.

My property taxes have never gone down! They only go up no matter what the national economy is doing. And you need to know that ALL Americans who rent, or lease, or own property are paying property taxes...how many Americans do not fall into one of these three categories?

You don't mention a word about forcing people out of their homes when they can't afford to pay property taxes...

 

I don't care what you like or not...I have told you and everyone else here who can read that I prefer sales taxes over property taxes and I gave the reasons why. Just because others don't agree with you does not mean they're idiots? Again, you have a complete failure to understand that ALL Americans who rent or lease or own property are paying property taxes! Businesses pay triple net leases which means they pay all the property taxes which are passed onto to YOU in the price of goods and services! Few Americans if any can escape the escalating cost of property taxes. I believe it is more practical for most Americans to pay a sales tax as they consume instead of requiring $1000's each year in a property tax bill...AND...if the property tax is not paid the house is taken from the owners while with sales taxes this is not an issue.

Your vulgarity and personal attacks on others only displays your flaws...

 

You are paying your landlord's property tax which is included in your rent but you are not creating an asset like the home owner. Both are okay options but assuming you're not paying property taxes is incorrect...