The Homeowners Defense Association (HDA) has launched a website to counter the damage it sees as being done to homeowners across the state by virtue of the runaway property tax system.
“DefendHomeowners.com will seek to mobilize homeowners by making them aware of how the state’s tax system is impacting their home,” HDA Executive Director Heidi Holan told the DuPage Policy Journal. “We will be advocating for tax reform and making people aware of what they can do about the current system.”
With Illinois residents paying some of the highest property taxes in the country, Holan argues that the situation has reached a crisis point.
Heidi Holan
“High property taxes are the biggest driver of all the outmigration you’re seeing across the state,” she said. “We want the cap to be somewhere around 1 percent; right now it’s at about 2.3 percent, or more than twice as high as where the national average is.”
Holan said homeowners can start fighting back by making themselves aware of what options they have and to understand what level of power they hold by banding together.
In addition to free individualized property tax reports, HDA members will receive free region-by-region property tax analyses. Membership is free.
“We will speak up for the silent majority of homeowners,” Holan said. “Illinois' property tax problem became so immense without any resistance.”
With the 2018 campaign season looming, Holan said HDA will be pushing to have an advisory referendum on the question of a 1 percent hard cap. HDA officials argue the cap would instantly restore home values and force local governments to live within their means, ending a growing pattern of bureaucrats raising taxes each year to account for excessive spending.
“People know taxes are much too high,” Holan said. “We want to make them aware of how things got to this point and what they can do to fight back.”
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