By: JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star

June 29, 2025

 

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said enacting property tax relief across the state is a legislative priority as he seeks a third term in office.

Pritzker said during a campaign stop in East Peoria that property tax reform is big in his purview.

"We need to address the property tax problems that face people across Illinois," Pritzker said Thursday. "That takes a lot of work because it's not just a one-time solution, it's something that requires us to increase investment in education, that is the biggest problem. You get your property tax bill, most of that is paying for education locally."

Pritzker then blamed high property taxes on a lack of education investment in Illinois in years past.

"We were last in the nation when I became governor at funding education from the state of Illinois," Pritzker said. "Now, we went from 24% funding to 40% funding. We've got a little ways to go to be the best in the country, but I'd like to just be average. We went from being last — being average would mean getting to 46%. So that's a big deal, we're going to keep working on that and that's something that would require getting reelected."

Illinois has the second worst effective property tax rate in the nation, according to Rocket Mortgage, ranking just one spot ahead of New Jersey. A study from SmartAsset specifically tabbed Peoria as the city with the highest property taxes in the nation relative to median home value.

State Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, said she agrees with Pritzker that the state is in need of property tax reform but said it is a "very, very complex issue" that will take years to untangle.

Gordon-Booth has been part of a House working group that's been working on an omnibus property tax reform bill for months. The bill, which was approved in a bipartisan vote that saw just one House member vote against it, will be in front of the Senate during the veto session this fall, Gordon-Booth said.

While the bill addresses some property tax relief measures supported by both sides of the aisle, Gordon-Booth said it is just the first small step in what will need to be a multi-year dive into reforming property taxes.

"Our constituents expect and deserve property tax relief — they deserve it and they expect it," Gordon Booth said. "What we have worked on in this last four to five months, is this one bill going to offer enough relief where we can go to our constituents and say 'we have fixed property taxes'? Absolutely not. That's not what we're saying here today."

A majority of property tax revenue goes toward funding education. In Peoria, roughly 57 to 58 cents of every property tax dollar levied goes toward education, City Manager Patrick Urich said. If the state does pursue property tax reform that includes more state-aid to education, Urich said that is a plan that should be up for discussion.

"We've as a state, Illinois has relied on property taxes to fund education for many, many years, and if there is an opportunity to reduce that reliance through other means, I think that is certainly something to be discussed," Urich said.

Urich also said high property taxes statewide can be a barrier for economic development if businesses are choosing to locate in places where property taxes are lower.

Locally politicians in Peoria, led by Mayor Rita Ali, have put an emphasis on building new housing and widening the city's property tax base. Last week the Peoria City Council approved a plan to buy the Peoria Exposition Gardens, where it hopes to entice a developer to build 110 to 150 homes, generating an estimated $1.5 to $1.6 million in new property tax revenue annually.

"Our focus is definitely on trying to grow our economy, our tax base, the number of people that live here, that's very important to us," Urich said. "If businesses are making a decision where to invest and our property tax rates are causing them to think elsewhere, to look elsewhere, then certainly from an economic development standpoint it makes sense to look at how we can get more competitive."

The challenge with reducing property taxes, or rather one of the many challenges that lies within the issue, is how to reduce the taxes without also cutting the things they fund, such as schools, libraries and parks, Gordon-Booth said. And with state revenues shrinking, the wiggle room gets even smaller.

"Revenue growth is shrinking, so when you're dealing with a scenario and revenues are slowing up and you begin to contemplate, well how do we then contend with the property tax issue, which ultimately will require money coming from somewhere else, that is a very real issue that we have to figure out," Gordon-Booth said. "We have not yet figured it out, and it's going to take a lot of work it is not going to happen overnight."

When cities begin to lose the things property taxes fund, Gordon-Booth said communities become "less vibrant" but added "we cannot allow this thing to continue to spiral."

"What happens is, communities where property taxes get out of control, those communities shrink, those communities become less and less livable," Gordon-Booth said. "I definitely feel like we are in a space where there is far more focus right now on the issue of property taxes across the caucus, across the branches of government, you're starting to see it far, far more."