Lake County Gazette

Illinois state Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) isn’t shy about expressing his displeasure with the state’s out-of-control property tax system.

“I’m leading the fight to cut Illinois property taxes,” McSweeney told the Lake County Gazette. “I’m fighting municipal bond attorney leader Jim Durkin, who personally profits off the high tax misery of Illinois citizens.”

With a recent WalletHub survey finding Illinois home to the second-highest property taxes in the country for the third straight year behind only New Jersey, McSweeney argues the situation could be bordering the point of no return.

“It’s time for our ‘bipartisan leaders’ in Springfield to get their act together and cut property taxes,” McSweeney added in a post to Facebook. “Our citizens deserve better than this.”

As part of their study, researchers detailed how taxes on a home valued at $205,000 in Illinois are almost three times higher ($4,700) than they are for the same priced home in nearby Kentucky or Indiana ($1,760).

McSweeney has long argued Illinois’ broken pension system plays a big role in the state’s property tax woes.

“Pension liabilities are rising so fast that local governments are continuing to raise property taxes on families,” he previously posted on social media amid recent reports average home prices in Cook County are down by a staggering 31 percent when adjusted for inflation while average property taxes have spiked by 22 percent over that same period.

On the whole, researchers noted that average home prices across the country have yet to fully recover since the end of the Great Recession but things were much more severe in Illinois where prices have dipped by as much as 500 percent from peak levels.