Illinois House Republicans bashed recommendations in a draft report from a legislative task force looking for ways to provide property tax relief, setting the stage for a partisan battle on a major issue facing lawmakers when they return to Springfield later this month.
The task force created by the General Assembly last year was supposed to issue its report by Dec. 31 but missed the deadline, with a draft of recommendations from the 90-member panel leaking out Tuesday.
The proposals in the draft report are wide-ranging and include recommendations to consolidate school districts, merge units of local government, shorten the life of tax increment financing districts and reexamine the property tax caps that apply to some government entities.
But Republicans said the draft — which their leaders on the task force received Dec. 23 — ignored many of their ideas.
“Democrats’ failure to provide any property tax relief is another clear indication of history repeating itself in Illinois,” House GOP leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said in a statement Tuesday. “With soaring new taxes hitting Illinois families across the state, the time is now to offer real property tax relief and fix this flawed system.”
Rep. Sam Yingling, the Grayslake Democrat chairing the task force, said Tuesday evening that the draft copy of the report shared with multiple media outlets was not finalized, and was still awaiting edits and input from Republicans.
“We want and need input from Republicans,” Yingling said. “This has to be done with all four caucuses moving forward, and all input is needed. That’s where we left it.”
Republicans have scheduled a news conference for Wednesday morning to address what they’re characterizing as the “Democrat failure” to reduce high property taxes.
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Chicago Democratic Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, a member of the task force, called the property tax issue “enormous” and said earlier Tuesday she hoped it doesn’t become a “partisan football.”
While it’s a tough issue to address, “it can be done,” Feigenholtz said. “A lot of substantive work has been done, and we should continue to plug along and not get into partisan bickering about it or internal drama.”
Broad property tax relief has proven a difficult issue for the General Assembly to address. Last spring, lawmakers considered a proposal that would have frozen property tax rates if voters approved a constitutional amendment to restructure the state’s income tax collection system, moving to a graduated-rate income tax, and if the state took on a larger share of funding education.
Some Democratic lawmakers voiced concern about supporting the graduated income tax, a cornerstone of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s agenda, if it wasn’t tied directly to property tax relief. But that measure didn’t advance out of the House, and the task force was instead created to find solutions for alleviating the property tax burden on Illinois property owners. The constitutional amendment will be put to voters in November.
There was discussion among the four caucuses about taking time beyond the Dec. 31 deadline before issuing the final recommendations, Yingling said.
It wasn’t clear as of Tuesday when the panel’s recommendations would be finalized.
“Given the weight of this topic, the four caucuses had decided to take more time before releasing the final report,” Yingling said.
In a message to House Republicans last week, Durkin said the final report should go before the full task force for consideration before being submitted to the General Assembly.
jmunks@chicagotribune.com
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
