Your series “An unfair burden” clearly shows that it is time to change the real estate tax system. The reliance on property taxes to fund local governments is an over 200-year-old system from a time when people’s wealth was in their land, not their income. The article proves that there is not a fair assessment system, and we penalize homeowners for improving their property and keeping it in good condition. As your article points out, appeals are more likely to be filed by wealthier homeowners than those with lower incomes.
We need to move to a system using income as the main basis for setting local taxes. I am sure there are economic experts who could devise a fair system, one that would include a fairer and higher funding of schools by the state of Illinois.
We could create a simplified system of taxing real estate, such as using building square footage and lot size. For example, if your home is under 1,000 square feet and your lot is under a quarter of an acre, you would pay a flat real estate tax of $500.
I live in a 50-unit townhouse complex with each townhouse the same size. Twenty units have a small side yard. After appeals to the Cook County assessor and the Board of Review, we now have assessed evaluations of the units that make absolutely no sense. Several units with side yards are assessed at a lower amount than those with no yards. The evaluations of the units with no yard also vary quite a bit.
Let’s move our tax system into the 21st Century.
— Joanne Zolomij, Evanston
