Will County Gazette

Speaking as a guest on Jak Tichenor's Illinois Lawmakers program, Sen. John Curran (R-Lemont) talked about property taxes, fuel prices, and the possibility of gas tax relief.

"Education funding is the path to permanent property tax increases. We fund education in this state in a manner that is not followed by the majority of states in this country. We fund it wholly, solely on local property taxes," Curran said. "This is an opportunity - we are making the full payment on the new funding formula, but we do need to look at ways to shoulder a greater burden of that education funding to provide long term, sustainable property tax relief for residents throughout the state.

Curran discussed the proposals that would give taxpayers a little help.

"There are some proposals floating around on some temporary relief at the pump and pauses on our fuel tax. The balance there is, we have to couple that with, we have great infrastructure needs," Curran said. "Right now, people are hurting at the pump. Cost of living has become a real, big concern for middle class and lower income families. It is an opportunity we have right now to provide some temporary relief, or potentially permanent relief on gas prices. But there's only so much the state controls on that. A lot of it is outside of our control, but we certainly have an opportunity to do our part.”

The average price of a regular gallon of gas in Illinois is $4.547 as of March 16, according to AAA, up from $3.088 one year ago. The national average cost is $4.305.

Senate Republicans have introduced SB 4195, which would immediately cap the state’s sales tax on motor fuel at 18 cents per gallon, according to a release from state Sen. Don DeWitte's (R-West Dundee) office. Republicans say this measure would save Illinois taxpayers almost $1 billion during the next fiscal year. "Currently, Illinoisans are paying about 25 cents per gallon in sales tax but could easily soon be paying up to 34 cents if gas prices hit $5.50 per gallon," according to the release.

Illinoisans pay the second-highest gas tax in the country, according to Illinois Policy. In 2019, Gov. Pritzker doubled the state gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents.

A 2021 report from the Tax Foundation said that Illinoisans pay the second-highest property tax rate in the country, second only to New Jersey. The Tax Foundation noted that both Illinois and New Jersey "impose high property taxes alongside high rates in the other major tax categories."

While a 2002 study by Wallethub ranked New Jersey's public schools third overall in the country, the study ranked Illinois' public schools 13th overall. Illinois schools ranked 10th for quality and 28th for safety.