Chicago vs suburbs
2017 tax rates for residential properties in Chicago and 11 Cook County suburbs were
Harvey: 7.08%
Chicago Hts: 5.01%
Elgin: 3.06%
Oak Park: 2.85%
Arlington Hts: 2.47%
Schaumburg: 2.44%
Orland Park: 2.36%
Elk Grove Village: 2.33%
Evanston: 2.15%
Barrington: 2.00%
Glenview: 1.99%
Chicago: 1.74%
Numbers are from a
Civic Federation report.
Chicago vs other states
One of the reasons property taxes in Illinois are higher than in other states is that cities and school districts in Illinois get relatively less money from the state than cities and school districts in other states get from their states. So the best way to compare Chicago to cities in other states is to look at all taxing districts (state, city, county and other) and all types of taxes (income, property, sales tax and other). In Chicago, “other” includes the RTA sales tax.
A year ago, when Lightfoot was running for mayor, she said that Chicagoans “live in one of the most taxed cities and the most taxed county, unfortunately, in the country”.
Politifact looked at this and rated her statement MOSTLY FALSE. The basis for Politifact’s rating was a study prepared by the Government of the District of Columbia that shows the combined 2016 tax rate for the largest cities in each of the 50 states plus DC. Cities that aren’t the biggest in their state (San Francisco, Dallas, etc) are not included.
Since the Politifact rating, DC has come out with a
study based on 2017 taxes. The 2017 numbers include the effect of Illinois income tax rate increase to 4.95%
Of the 51 cities ranked, for families earning $25,000 / yr, Chicago had the 6th highest combined tax rate at 14.3% And for families earning $150,000 / yr, Chicago had the 17th highest combined tax rate at 11.1%
The numbers below (from the DC study) show the combined tax rates for Chicago and six other large cities plus the largest cities in seven neighboring Midwest states.
#4 Detroit 13.4%
#5 NY City 12.9%
#7 Des Moines 12.6%
#8 Milwaukee 12.5%
#10 Los Angeles 12.0%
#11 Philly 12.0%
#13 Kansas City 11.7%
#16 Columbus 11.1%
#17 Chicago 11.1%
#22 Atlanta 10.5%
#23 Indianapolis 10.2%
#24 Minneapolis 9.8%
#34 Washington DC 9.2%
#46 Houston 5.8%
To conclude:
• Taxes in Chicago are regressive. The combined tax rate for high-paid families (11.1%) is lower than the rate for low-paid families (14.3%).
• High-paid families in Chicago are not among the highest taxed in the country. They’re not even among the highest taxed in the Midwest.
• If you have a $25,000 / yr property tax bill, you’ve probably got a house in the top ten percent. You’re not overtaxed.
• Lower income families may be leaving Chicago because of the taxes (and crime) but I don’t think upper income families are.