Martin “Marty” Blumenthal, a Republican candidate running for the District 58 State House seat, is not surprised by the news of Illinois’ poor tax-burden statistics, which were recently shared by watchdog organization WalletHub.
“I am not surprised that Illinois is in the top 10 for overall tax burden,” Blumenthal said in response to data showing that Illinois citizens bear the nation’s 10th highest overall tax rate.
With a 10.19 percent tax rate on the whole, the Land of Lincoln scored even more poorly when WalletHub crunched the numbers specifically on property taxes — revealing that with a rate of 2.32 percent, the state collects the second-highest property taxes in the U.S. Only New Jersey scored more poorly.
| Contributed photo
“I have not seen the methods that were used to calculate the rankings, but the citizens of Illinois already know they pay the nation's highest property taxes and, in Cook County at least, the nation's highest sales tax,” Blumenthal said.
Over the past 50 years, Illinois property taxes have grown 2.5 times faster than inflation and 14 times faster than the state’s population since 1963.
In October 2015, Chicago’s City Council approved a 2016 budget that included $755 million in tax and fee increases proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. That plan had the largest property tax hike in the city’s modern history.
“These factors are forcing people to move out of Illinois and to more tax-friendly states,” Blumenthal said. “This is especially true for retirees.”
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