By Cole Lauterbach | Illinois News
A couple of local elected officials are leaving their posts
to move out of state, fed up with rising property taxes.
In the far northwest suburbs, Lakewood Village President
Paul Serwatka plans to resign this summer when he moves to Alabama. He said his
new home in Huntsville sits on more than 10 times the land that his home in
Illinois does and costs a fraction in property taxes.
In his short time as village president, he said he worked to
lower the tax burden for residents of Lakewood, a village of about 4,000 people
in McHenry County. He succeeded in reducing the village’s property tax levy by
10 percent, but he said many residents came to him with higher tax bills than
the year before because the other taxing bodies raised their levies, pushing
overall property tax bills up.
“I felt like I could fight this thing for another 20 years,
but do I really believe at the end that we’re going to save Illinois?” he said.
“I just don’t believe it.”
Serwatka faced criticism from residents and other members of
the Lakewood Village Board. The local newspaper called for his immediate
resignation.
He said he wishes he could have done more, but said he had
to take his family into account.
“By the time our kids are in college, a good portion of
their college tuition will be sitting there waiting for them just by the
difference in property taxes,” he said.
McHenry County College trustee Chris Jenner was laid off
from his day job in 2016. Already dealing with his wife’s illness, he resigned
late last year and moved to Fort Myers, Florida. He was frustrated that he
couldn’t lower taxes for residents that saw property taxes soar.
“Why give all this money to the government instead of saving
it for your own retirement?” he asked.
Jenner lost tens of thousands of dollars on his home after a
tepid response to paying market value in such a high-tax area.
“We had to lower the asking price by more than $70,000
before we got a single offer,” he said. “It was an absolute nightmare.”
Both he and Serwatka said many homeowners that would want to
leave the state were in a situation where their mortgage was worth more than
the value of their house, commonly known as underwater.
Then-state Rep. Pam Roth, R-Morris, resigned her seat in
2013 to move to Texas with her family. In an interview with Illinois News
Network, Roth talked about the differences between the states.
“I’m amazed by how prosperous it is down here," she
said. "Everywhere you look, there are cranes and buildings going up. This
is very much what happens when you live in a business-friendly state with low
Tags
Paul Serwatka
Commerce Finance Economics
State Chris Jenner Politician
Pam Roth Politics Property Tax
Illinois Levy Resident
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