Will County Gazette

The Illinois Legislature adjourned without addressing property tax reform, a fact that doesn't surprise Plainfield resident and Republican precinct committeeperson Dale Fontana. 

Illinois residents were hopeful that the states's high property tax rate would get discussed in the 2020 legislative session, but Fontana rquestioned if Illnois lawmakers would address and rectify the problem. 

“In a hopeful world, the Legislature should adjust the formulas of how property taxes are assessed and there should be no indexing for inflation built in,” Fontana said. “All revenue streams to all taxing authorities should be tied to the previous fiscal year’s actual receipts. But that would force constraint to the corrupt business of vote purchasing with non-existent funds...If there is anything that any unit of government be it federal or state is good at, it's never, ever properly addressing the enormous fiscal problems which exist at both levels."

Last summer, Gov. J.B. Pritzker named members to a task force assigned to study the state's property tax rate. The task force released a draft report in January, but Republican members of the panel said it was unacceptable. Republican members claimed that new ideas and serious proposals to address the issue had not been given fair consideration.

Efforts to address the property tax were further derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Legislature temporarily adjourned March 13 amid the coronavirus crisis, leaving the state budget with a gaping hole and state revenues on the decline. 

After resuming a four day session that ended just after midnight on Sunday, May 24, policymakers agreed to a $40 billion budget for fiscal year 2021 that is heavily reliant on federal dollars.

Lawmakers agreed to a 120-day extension of the property tax exemption with no interest or penalties and renewed the homestead exemption for qualifying seniors, individuals with disabilities, and veterans.

Fontana is not impressed by the Legislature’s decisions.

“Firstly, regarding the discussion surrounding the delay of making 2019 property tax payments in four installments instead of two, I believe it is just political moves to create the illusion that the legislative entity, in this case the Will County Board, is actually doing something to help its constituents,” he said. “The only sensible thing that should be passed in this regard is a forgiving of interest or penalty charges for late payments. But there should be two installment payments required as before.”

Fontana said it is a sign of a permissive culture that does not hold people to a reasonable standard.

“Any obligation, regardless of which kind, does not carry with it a pandemic exclusion clause, or tornado clause, or flood clause precluding its having to be met,” he said. “It is the responsibility of all people to mitigate and manage such problems and fulfill responsibilities. It is the lack of owning up to these things that has created a culture of excuses and malfeasance as it relates to financial matters. And it's the large institutions, namely government, that has done the worst job at meeting theirs.”

Fontana would like to see Illinois elected and appointed officials address issues in a fair standard where lawmakers do not spend money they don’t have. Fontana urged his fellow Illinois citizens, who bear the ultimate responsibility of the decisions made by policymakers, to pay attention to the "incredibly high tax burden levied upon them" and to take action at the voting booths. 

"The people have repeatedly returned the same criminal incompetent legislators to office," Fontana said. “In fact, they have increased their numbers in the Legislature. So how can any sane person expect sense from policymakers when the people apparently demand this stupidity? At some point the buck stops with the people. After all, it is ‘the consent of the governed,’ is it not?"

Fontana remains cynical that lawmakers will pass measures that move the state towards fiscal responsibility. 

“I hear the phrase ‘our great country’ so many times in so many different contexts," he said. "The harsh reality is that great countries and great societies do not behave in such an irresponsible way on such a grand scale all the time."