Lake County Gazette

The Illinois Legislature adjourned without addressing property tax reform but Kathy Myalls said they have bigger fish to fry to in Springfield.

Property tax reform was on the table before the pandemic, with a task force formed in 2019 to study the issue. But budget woes overwhelmed the legislature and all that was passed was a 120-day extension on payments without penalties and an extension for seniors and the handicapped.

A $40 billion budget for fiscal year 2021 was approved during a four-day special session in May, relying on windfall of federal dollars. The property tax relief task force floated a draft of its report in January, but it was never seriously discussed this session.

Myalls, an attorney for Interpublic Group of Companies, an advertising holding company, said she wants to see major change, and fixing the property tax problem alone won’t accomplish that.

“We don't need property tax reform as much as we need spending reform,” she said. “If Springfield tries to fix the property tax crisis without addressing its underlying cause — the drunken sailor spending that has become the norm here — the reform will be an illusion, because Springfield will rob Peter to pay Paul.”

Myalls said fixing property tax will simply cause a leak to spring up elsewhere in the system.

“Property taxes might go down but income taxes will go up,” she said. “Or sales tax. Or license fees for middle-class professionals who want to cut hair or sell liquor.”

As for the argument that this is not the right time to work on it, with a financial crisis and a worldwide pandemic, Myalls disagrees.

“By ‘it,’ do you mean property tax reform, or do you mean a lack of action on that reform? Either way, it is already a legislative issue,” she said. “All spending and revenue decisions are legislative issues. But they sat at home for two months of their legislative session, afraid to come to Springfield to do their jobs but, obviously, unwilling to refuse the pay they received for the work they didn't do. The brazenness of this theft would be stunning if it wasn't so commonplace here in Illinois.”

She has been on the frontline of political battles before. 

A Wilmette resident, Myalls, 58, ran for state representative in 2014, and later sought a trustee position in New Trier Township. In 2018, she was elected as the New Trier Township Republican committeewoman, a post she will hold until March 2022.

She said the problem may not be with the government in Springfield but in the will of Illinois voters.

“I’m not sure voters care enough,” Myalls said. “If they did, we would not keep electing the same [House Speaker Mike] Madigan minions hoping for different results — the definition of crazy, right? If voters cared about their property taxes, they would pay more attention to the fact that teachers on the North Shore can announce their impending [five-years away] retirement, and get a 5 percent raise every year until they retire, so that their 75 percent pension becomes a 95 percent pension, and we end up paying for three people for the same job [the current teacher, the just-retired teacher and the teacher before her].”

The public has to make these problems a statewide issue and that will force politicians to act, she said.

“If voters cared," Myalls added, "they would pay more attention to the people who spend the bulk of their property taxes, and would insist on spending reform — or at least accountability for the irresponsible lack of transparency.”