Freezing property taxes in Illinois might be a great idea – if the associated costs can be absorbed, Mundelein Village Trustee Ray Semple said during a recent interview.
"Freezing property taxes could be a great idea if local governments could freeze the rising costs incurred – like pension plan payments, increasing insurance benefits, meeting labor union contracts and increased payments to workers that get modest pay raises each year," Semple told the Lake County Gazette. "Add the rising cost of oil and gas and vehicles (and) it can make your head spin when you realize how difficult cutting costs can be."
Township governments add to overall tax bills, Semple said, adding that he couldn't think of any benefits township supervisors and boards could offer to municipal residents. "Township governments in the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area ... seem like an unnecessary layer of government," Semple said. "The opposite is true in rural Illinois where townships provide similar services like municipalities do or that county governments offer."
Village of Mundelein Trustee Ray Semple
Semple, a national account representative for a major U.S. credit bureau, has been a Mundelein trustee since 1995 and was re-elected to another four-year term in April.
A bill discussed during the fall veto session, Senate Bill 851, would establish a two-year property tax freeze for Cook, Lake, McHenry, Kane, DuPage and Will counties. The measure would allow those counties to increase property taxes only with voter approval.
All other counties would be subject to referendums asking whether a property tax freeze should be imposed for 2018 and 2019 or that all governments within a county jurisdiction be subject to a property tax freeze over that period and to the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law for levy year 2020 and the foreseeable future.
Bryan Smith, the executive director of the Township Officials of Illinois, had sent a legislative alert to township officials about SB851, asking them to urge their state lawmakers to oppose the measure.
The legislation was not brought up for a vote in the Senate before the veto session ended.
Which leaves local governments in the same boat as before, Semple said. "Municipalities need to think outside the box to come up with ways to be more efficient," he said and then referred to an intergovernmental agreement recently approved by Mundelein to borrow a neighboring government's ladder truck when there is a need. "We can sell our own truck and buy a more efficient front line vehicle and not have to save $1.5 million to buy a new ladder truck in a few years," he said.
"This is the tip of the iceberg on how governments can be more efficient," he said.
Thinking along a similar line, township governments could probably be absorbed by municipalities and the county in the urban areas of northeastern Illinois, Semple said. "Ask a township supervisor how much they make in terms of the salary they are paid, what sort of pension they will have and then ask what they actually do to earn their money," he said.
"Assessor roles and highway commissioners are separate entities and not under the umbrella of the township supervisor," he said.
More should be done to consolidate Illinois' many taxing bodies, Semple said. "Eliminating township government where it is not vitally important seems like a logical first step," he said.
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