Bill would eliminate property taxes for Illinois homeowners after 30 years of residency

A bill filed at the Illinois Statehouse seeks to end property taxes for qualified taxpayers who live in and pay taxes on a residential home for at least 30 years.

State Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, said at some point, you have to own your own property.

“This country is founded upon freedom and property rights and at some point, you have to be able to own your property,” said Anderson. “This [bill] is a way to keep people in Illinois. If they own a home for 20 years and they have an option of moving to another state because they're tired of being taxed in Illinois, now all of a sudden, maybe [with the passage of this bill], they hang out another 10 years and now they don't have to pay property tax. That keeps them in the state and buying goods in the state and paying taxes in a different way.”

Illinois lost 32,826 residents from July 2022 to July 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That was the 10th consecutive year of population loss for the state.

Anderson suspects there will be opposition.

“I posted on Facebook about this and I've gotten a lot of feedback already. I tend to agree with the people that are in the comment section that are upset, that are saying, ‘well, you know, I've owned my house for 20 years because I paid for it in cash or I paid it off early, why shouldn't I be able to not pay property taxes?’ I get it,” said Anderson. “This [bill] is a starting point. If we can start somewhere and just get some kind of agreement that at some point, whether it's 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, whatever the agreement on the time period is, if we can agree that at some point you've paid enough money and you actually own your property and you don't have to pay anything anymore, that's the starting point I want to get to here.”

Senate Bill 1862 is co-sponsored by state Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Cherry Valley.

The measure says "qualified taxpayers,” or individuals who for at least 30 continuous years as of Jan. 1 of the taxable year have occupied the same homestead property as a principal residence and domicile, will be exempt from paying property taxes.

According to Anderson, the bill doesn’t apply to properties that provide income.

"Qualified homestead property" is defined in the bill as a single-family residence that is occupied as a principal residence and domicile by a qualified taxpayer.

Anderson said the bill was not just created to provide property tax relief for Illinoisans, who pay the highest property taxes in the nation.

“If I lived in Texas or Tennessee where property taxes are super low, I would also introduce this legislation. You have to be able to say, ‘yes, I own this property and they can't take it away from me,’” said Anderson.

Anderson doubts the legislation will pass.

“I'm hoping that I can get some friends on the other side of the aisle that just agree with the concept of, ‘oh, my gosh you're right, we do have to be able to own our property at some point and not pay anything else.’ If the compromise is to go to 50 years, fine, I'll take that starting point,” said Anderson.