So much for the schtick that progressive tax policies won’t impact anyone struggling to survive in their economy! According to a piece out at Crain’s Chicago Business, Cook County Democrats recently hiked property taxes across the board, with increases larger than any other in nearly three decades. Of course, on the southside of Chicago, the hardest hit were the low-income blacks. Here’s what the report said:

In late June and early July, property owners in Chicago’s southern suburbs found shocking news in their mailboxes. Cook County had mailed residential property tax bills bearing increases larger than any in at least 29 years, with a median rise of 19.9%.

Hit hardest were majority-Black municipalities with populations whose median household incomes range from $24,500 to $69,700. The skyrocketing increases in those towns of over 30% could force many of the region's low-income residents to choose between taking on unsustainable debt and losing their homes. Property tax inequity is another example of how systems impose extra costs on Black homeowners and renters, putting low-income families — and entire communities — in precariously unstable financial situations.

(As a reminder, property tax is the fee you pay to rent property you “own” from the government; as another reminder, Illinois has the second highest property tax rate in the nation, with around “8,000 different taxing authorities,” only beaten out by New Jersey.)

Let’s run some numbers, shall we? In Cook County, the average median sale price of a home was $351,000—so to get a rough idea, let’s just call this the market value. Property tax rates are based on an assessed value though, which in most of Illinois, is around 34% of the market value. Based on the aforementioned figure, that means we’re looking at $119,340 for assessed value; under the old county tax rate (2.1%), people in Cook County were paying around $2,500 a year to the county, and around $2,600 to the state (2.23%), or roughly $5,100 a year in property taxes. But under the new county rate of 3.0163%? Cook County property taxes alone would have jumped to $3,600, and including the state bill, residents are looking at shelling out $6,200 in property taxes every year. (Of course, this scenario yields a 38% increase, which is higher than the median, but still totally within the realm of possibility if we are in fact looking at a median rise in property taxes.)

Best case scenario, a taxpayer is on the high end of the median household income range (“household income” refers to gross income) and bringing in around $70k; this means that property taxes suck up a whopping 9% of the family’s budget, before income taxes are also seized.

Worst case scenario? Twenty-five percent of the yearly income if this taxpayer is only making $24,500, again, before other taxes—don’t forget that someone making $24,500 is still eligible for federal income tax (10%), and Illinois state income tax (4.95%). A person making $24,500 per year, living in an inherited home, could easily be taxed into poverty, and forced to sell a property they own outright, because they can’t afford the tax bills; progressive politicians are taxing people out of their own homes, and as always, the hardest hit are those on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder.

In some capacity or another, progressive Democrats constantly market their taxation policies as a way to improve the financial positions of the poor and middle classes, pretending as though sanctioning more theft from certain citizens actually makes for a fairer, and more just society for all—and it’s all a lie.

“Tax the rich” read Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Met Gala dress, where tickets go for an average of $75,000, or “more than the average down payment on a house.”

“If you make under $400,000 a year, you won’t pay a penny more in taxes under our administration” said a social media post from Kamala Harris.

We hear about the “ultra wealthy,” “corporate greed,” and millionaires and billionaires who need to pay their “fair share.” They’re doing nothing more than fomenting a class war, feigning care for the little guy struggling to survive, and getting extravagantly wealthy in the process—it’s utterly disgusting.

Image generated by AI.