IASB's Pritzker, Schwarm pen property tax column

A column by Ben Schwarm, deputy executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards, and IASB President Phil Pritzker, was published in the State-Journal Register (Springfield) as part of the newspaper’s Point/Counterpoint series. The topic was the ongoing discussion of a property tax freeze.

Current proposals that apply to school districts would not allow a district’s tax extension to be increased without voter approval. The column begins:

Pritzker  

Schwarm

Point: Education of state’s children harmed with property tax freeze

The proposed legislation in the Illinois General Assembly regarding a “property tax freeze” would undoubtedly have an adverse effect on local school districts across the state, while providing a limited benefit for individual taxpayers.

The proposed “freeze” is not a cap on individual taxpayers’ property tax bills. In fact, some property tax bills could still increase, depending on individual circumstances. Decreases in individual bills would be relatively small. The limit in the proposed legislation is a cap on the property tax extension levied by a unit of local government or school district — the aggregate amount of all property tax receipts.

The net effect is that hundreds of millions of dollars would be lost to local school districts because of a property tax freeze. ...

Click here to read the complete letter at the State Journal-Register opinion section.