The Republican-controlled Senate disregarded Gov. Jim Edgar’s opposition and overwhelmingly overrode his veto Wednesday of a measure that would freeze the property assessments of elderly homeowners with annual incomes of less than $35,000.
The Senate’s 50-8 vote to override the veto, 14 votes more than needed, moved the issue over to the Democratic-controlled House, which is expected to take similar action in two weeks and put the tax-relief measure into law.
Edgar aides said the Republican governor, vacationing after his re-election victory last week, was disappointed in the Senate’s action, but Sen. Judy Baar Topinka of Riverside, the Republican state treasurer-elect, who sponsored the bill, sought to dismiss any differences between herself, GOP senators and Edgar.
She said it was simply a case of each wanting to accomplish some form of property-tax relief, but in different ways.
“Nobody should try to blow this whole override out of perspective, or somehow feel that this is some kind of a major argument between us, because it is not,” said Topinka, who worked to stress her independence from Edgar in her successful statewide campaign.
Under the measure, which received overwhelming support in the pre-election spring session, homeowners 65 and older with annual incomes of $35,000 or less would have their property assessments frozen at 1993 levels.
Though obviously a politically popular measure with a dedicated voting bloc, school districts and other local taxing bodies argued that the bill could deprive them of revenues and also would shift more of a real-estate tax burden to businesses and younger homeowners.
State Department of Revenue officials had estimated the legislation would result in $40 million in property-tax revenues being shifted or lost to taxing bodies in its first year and double that amount in its second year.
In vetoing the measure, Edgar cited the tax shift and its effects upon “homeowners struggling to raise families” and said he believed the elderly, “perhaps more than any other citizens in our state,” would understand.
Topinka acknowledged the potential tax shift, but said taxation “by its very nature is not necessarily 100 percent fair or equal.”
“There is no question we shift the burden to others who are in a better position and are able to handle this,” she said. “But it is far cheaper to invest on the front end than drive these senior citizens out of their homes where their assets are fixed (and) they don’t have access to the money their property is worth until they sell it.”
The vote to override crossed party lines in the chamber.
Democratic Sen. Denny Jacobs of East Moline argued that the state was putting an unfunded mandate on some local taxing bodies which, taxing at their maximum rate, might lose money through the assessment freeze. Jacobs estimated a $14 million loss to local school districts.
Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) contended the bill would exacerbate the disparity in per-pupil funding among local school districts. Dillard, Edgar’s former chief of staff, voted for the bill in the spring but voted against the override, saying his action reflected the feelings of his constituents.
The harshest criticism of the measure came from Sen. John Maitland (R- Bloomington), a longtime advocate of increasing state dollars for education while reducing the property-tax burden on homeowners.
“This is cruel and deceiving property-tax relief for senior citizens,” Maitland said. “We have failed for lo these many years to address the rapidly escalating taxes on all sectors in this state, and we have failed miserably.”
