Your Property Taxes Are Too High — Here’s Why
If your property tax bill just made your eyes jump out of your head, you’re not alone. Families across Chicago are staring at the same numbers and asking the same question:
How did it get this bad?
This moment isn’t just about property taxes. It’s about leadership or the lack of it. Chicago doesn’t have a math problem. It has a trust problem. And trust breaks down when leaders stop leading.
For decades, our elected officials skipped pension payments, papered over deficits, and pushed costs into the future to protect their own political careers. Now the bill has finally come due — and regular homeowners are paying for decisions they never made.
Nowhere is that pain sharper than in the neighborhoods like the ones I grew up in
in Chicago. These are working families who play by the rules, build strong communities, and shoulder their share. And they’re getting crushed by choices made far from their kitchen tables.
People see it clearly:
- City Hall hasn’t done the basics.
- We’re paying more and getting less.
- And too many leaders are more focused on reelection than on homeowners and working families.
That’s why we created Leading a Better Chicago to push for smart, sustainable solutions rather than the same old tax hikes and political gimmicks.
But before anyone asks you for another dollar, City Hall must get its own house in order.
Your tax dollars paid Ernst & Young $3.2 million for a report spelling out management reforms the City still refuses to adopt:
- Consolidating duplicative HR, IT, finance, and procurement operations
- Modernizing CPD scheduling and expanding civilian roles so officers can focus on public safety
- Ending costly leases and consolidating underused office space
- Updating contracting and bulk purchasing to stop chronic overpayment
- Streamlining overly layered management structures
These aren’t partisan ideas. They’re the basics. The kind of steps every responsible organization takes without hesitation.
Only after these reforms are implemented should anyone even consider raising taxes on working families. And when the city does consider raising taxes, there are far better options than hammering homeowners yet again: modern online-commerce tax collection, commuter-focused user fees, and public-private innovation partnerships.
Real solutions exist. Chicago simply hasn’t explored them.
Leading a Better Chicago will keep pushing for transparency, accountability, and the serious leadership this moment demands. Because Chicago should be a city where families can build a future, not one they’re driven out of by mismanagement and broken promises.