Democratic state Rep. Sam Yingling (Grayslake) is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that his voice is heard in opposition to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed “fair tax.”
“The Chicago Tribune published a letter I wrote asking the Illinois House to take more time to fully deliberate the issues concerning the proposed 'fair tax,' Yingling wrote in a post to Facebook. “The current proposals do not adequately address the crushing burden that our property tax system places on homeowners. This may be the only time in a generation to get it right and the members of the House of Representatives must not be rushed.”
In his Tribune letter, Yingling recalled how his now 90-year-old grandmother “was forced to work a part-time job to pay her property taxes” not long ago after her husband and his grandfather became ill. “In Illinois, the disproportionate reliance on and financial burden of property taxes to fund government — roads and bridges, education, police, fire and other essential services — is devastating,” he wrote.
State Rep. Sam Yingling
As stressful as things were for his grandmother, Yingling said she hasn’t had it as hard as some.
“This is happening in neighborhoods all over Illinois, not only in Lake County and the Southland of Cook County, but in all 102 counties of the state, where families are losing their lifelong investment to soaring property tax rates they can no longer afford,” he continued in the Tribune letter. “Illinois' reliance on an abusive and regressive property tax system is a major factor for growing income inequality. It threatens families’ sense of security. People should not be punished for working hard, raising a family and investing their life savings in a home.”
Yingling said nothing about Pritzker’s proposal addresses those issues.
“While adoption of a progressive income tax might be a logical step toward achieving a fairer and more equitable overall income tax system here, we cannot address the inequities in the tax system without addressing the entire system, both income taxes and property taxes,” he wrote. “The current proposals do not adequately address the crushing burden that our property tax system places on homeowners. I will be a 'no' vote unless adoption of a progressive income tax ends the state’s regressive and abusive property tax system.”
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