(The Center Square) – A bill filed
at the Illinois Statehouse seeks to end property taxes for qualified taxpayers
who live in and pay taxes on a residential home for at least 30 years. State
Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, said at some point, you have to own your own
property.
“This country is founded upon
freedom and property rights and at some point, you have to be able to own your
property,” said Anderson. “This [bill] is a way to keep people in Illinois. If
they own a home for 20 years and they have an option of moving to another state
because they're tired of being taxed in Illinois, now all of a sudden, maybe
[with the passage of this bill], they hang out another 10 years and now they
don't have to pay property tax. That keeps them in the state and buying goods
in the state and paying taxes in a different way.”
Illinois lost 32,826 residents from
July 2022 to July 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That was the 10th
consecutive year of population loss for the state.
Anderson suspects there will be
opposition.
“I posted on Facebook about this
and I've gotten a lot of feedback already. I tend to agree with the people that
are in the comment section that are upset, that are saying, ‘well, you know,
I've owned my house for 20 years because I paid for it in cash or I paid it off
early, why shouldn't I be able to not pay property taxes?’ I get it,” said
Anderson. “This [bill] is a starting point. If we can start somewhere and just
get some kind of agreement that at some point, whether it's 10 years, 20 years,
30 years, 50 years, whatever the agreement on the time period is, if we can
agree that at some point you've paid enough money and you actually own your
property and you don't have to pay anything anymore, that's the starting point
I want to get to here.”
Senate Bill 1862 is co-sponsored by state Sen. Dave
Syverson, R-Cherry Valley.
The measure says "qualified
taxpayers,” or individuals who for at least 30 continuous years as of Jan. 1 of
the taxable year have occupied the same homestead property as a principal
residence and domicile, will be exempt from paying property taxes.
According to Anderson, the bill
doesn’t apply to properties that provide income. "Qualified homestead
property" is defined in the bill as a single-family residence that is
occupied as a principal residence and domicile by a qualified taxpayer.
Anderson said the bill was not just
created to provide property tax relief for Illinoisans, who pay the highest
property taxes in the nation. “If I lived in Texas or Tennessee where property
taxes are super low, I would also introduce this legislation. You have to be
able to say, ‘yes, I own this property, and they can't take it away from me,’”
said Anderson.
Anderson doubts the legislation
will pass. “I'm hoping that I can get some friends on the other side of the
aisle that just agree with the concept of, ‘oh, my gosh you're right, we do
have to be able to own our property at some point and not pay anything else.’
If the compromise is to go to 50 years, fine, I'll take that starting point,”
said Anderson.
-NewsBreak
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