Lake County Gazette

Barrett Davie, the Republican challenger to state Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield), said voters should believe her candid, if inadvertent, spirited defense of higher property taxes before the Lake Forest City Council.

Davie said it is consistent with Morrison's actions in Springfield, which he says are mostly to blame for soaring property tax bills in Lake County, now among the highest in the country.

"Unfunded mandates passed down from Springfield to our local governments pressure them to keep raising taxes," Davie told the Lake County Gazette. "Morrison and Chicago Democrats see our homes as their piggy banks."

Illinois state Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield)

On July 2, when asked about rising property taxes by a member of the Lake Forest City Council, Morrison attacked "tax freeze" proposals, suggesting residents supporting lower property taxes were ignorant and uninformed.

Voters "don’t have all the information they should have," she said.

“Does it mean losing police officers? Does it mean a project on the docket won’t be renovated?” Morrison said. “Voters might be fine losing four or five teachers or a foreign language program. But they may not.”

But on the same day she decried them, Morrison's campaign distributed fliers to Lake Forest residents claiming that she “is working to freeze property taxes.”

“She’s not being honest,” Davie said. “Is she lying or not lying?"

Davie said Morrison prioritizes government jobs and spending over voters' home equity, which has eroded as taxes have risen.

“For sale signs are out, property values are going down, and she talks about educating voters about loss of services if there is a property tax freeze?" Davie said. "She has no idea what’s going on in people’s homes.”

In May, the Senate approved Morrison’s anti-tax freeze resolution, SR 1598, suggesting that “each unit of Government that receives property taxes should, during a regularly scheduled or a special meeting with proper public notice, conduct a public forum to discuss the specific effects of a property tax freeze for 1, 2, 5 years and permanently,” according to a summary of the resolution posted on the General Assembly’s website.

The resolution states in part: “The state legislature can pass laws freezing property tax rates, but such a one-size-fits-all legislation may unjustly hurt some local communities, while leaving some units of government with excess surpluses.”

Illinois has the highest property taxes in the nation, with Morrison’s district being particularly hard hit.

A 2017 analysis by Local Government Information Services of 43 Lake County communities found that soaring taxes are driving down Lake County property values.

Adjusted for inflation, all 43 saw median prices fall significantly from 2007 to 2015.

The worst: North Chicago (-51 percent), Waukegan (-48 percent), Zion (-46 percent), Round Lake Beach (-45 percent) and Round Lake Park (-44 percent).

The least-worst: Riverwoods (-22 percent), Lake Bluff (-22 percent) and Lake Forest (-23 percent), where the median sale price fell from $1.057 million to $815,000.

Every Lake County community saw its home values fall significantly. Compounding the pain is the fact that property taxes continued rising.

The rise was driven, in large part, by steady increases in local school district spending, which make up 70 percent of a typical property tax bill. While Lake Forest homeowners saw their property values fall 23 percent, Lake Forest’s Rondout School District 72 increased spending by 29 percent over the same period, adjusted for inflation.