Lake County Gazette

Kathy Myalls isn’t optimistic that Illinois governments will be up to the challenge of operating with reduced revenue as a the COVID-19 pandemic, and the government's reaction to it, has created a dramatic decline in tax revenue. 

A Viewpoints article co-written by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner predicts Illinois homeowners could see their property taxes jump to make up the loss in commercial real estate tax dollars.

“The lockdown has left many businesses and commercial properties with reduced or no income for months, bringing down the economic value of their properties,” it states. “Many owners can be expected to appeal their property assessments to reflect that reality. Commercial and office space in downtown Chicago and other suburban areas will also see their assessments drop as businesses shrink their footprint going forward. Nationwide, over 74 percent of CFOs plan to permanently shift some employees to only work remotely post-coronavirus, according to a recent Gartner survey.”

If governments eye higher property taxes, it will be nothing new for Illinois taxpayers who pay the nation’s highest property taxes. In the past 25 years, they have shouldered more of the load, paying roughly half of the $11.7 billion in total property taxes collected in the state in 1995 and two-thirds of $31.8 billion in taxes in 2020.

Myalls, a Wilmette resident, is an attorney for Interpublic Group of Companies, an advertising holding company. She told Lake County Gazette that nothing would surprise her because government bodies have proven they are not very interested in taxpayers’ concerns.

“Really, anything is possible here,” she said. “It's to be expected that they are blaming COVID for increased taxes when Springfield's been spending like drunken sailors without impunity for decades. COVID is just a convenient excuse to cover the utter lack of discipline by our government. Commercial property assessments are expected to drop? What a joke. So are residential assessments if they are paying attention. All taxes are going to go up, because all spending is going to go up.”

She said governments could avoid that outcome with a few simple decisions.

“STOP. SPENDING,” she said, using capital letters for emphasis. “Hell, even our legislators got raises while everyone else in Illinois got laid off, furloughed, or salary cuts. They are shameless.”

What cuts are needed and could be made?

“Oh, where to start ... change pensions to 401(k)s,” Myalls said. “Modify the constitutional protection for pensions. Illinois retirees are getting 3 percent annual raises in retirement, and there’s almost 80,000 of them who don’t live in Illinois.

“Teachers in Wilmette who announce their retirement in five years get a 25 percent end-of-career pay increase so that the 75 percent pension is 95 percent and they end up making more in retirement than they did working,” she said. “The system is really broken.”

She also calls for cutting salaries for legislators and pulling their pensions.

“It's a flippin’ part-time job and they aren’t doing it well,” Myalls said.

She favors canceling public unions.

“The union bosses and Democrats sit at a table together and spend our money, and we don't have a seat at that table,” Myalls said.

She also favors some legitimate redistricting to make districts party-neutral.

“More than half of the Illinois legislative races are uncontested because the outcome is predetermined and politicians are picking their voters instead of the other way around,” Myalls said. “Draw lines that make sense so that there is actual representation of Republicans and Democrats and so that both parties have to work together. One-party rule in Illinois has only gone well for [Speaker Mike] Madigan and his union cronies. That needs to end. I could go on but it's 85 degrees outside.”

Myalls has experience in Illinois political battles. She was a candidate for state representative in 2014, and also ran for a trustee position in New Trier Township. She was elected to a four-year term as the New Trier Township Republican committeewoman in 2018.

Does she expect any reforms and spending cuts to happen?

“That’s rhetorical, right?” Myalls said.

Will local governments can respond to this challenge?

“That’s rhetorical too, I’m guessing,” she said.

Myalls said the answer is a better-informed public, one that gets information that is not screened and diluted.

“We need more media outlets and internet platforms that quit editing the news and instead present it fairly. It’s a joke that Facebook is being boycotted, and it’s not like I carry water for Zuckerberg,” she said. “They were the only ones that didn’t decide to cancel people for presenting alternate viewpoints. We need more organizations like Illinois Policy Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute, who help do research and spread actual information instead of fake news.”