Bill Cameron, WLS News
(CHICAGO) Tomorrow is the day Mayor Emanuel rolls out his bad news budget to the City Council. Today, several of the aldermen have an idea to soften the blow to the big property tax hike the mayor is expected to propose.
Eleven of the 50 aldermen who call themselves progressives have lined up in support of a plan to send a rebate check to lower and middle class homeowners who will get whacked with a huge property tax hike.
Rookie Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is pushing this long shot.
“We may have people who live in a community that is changing rapidly, they may be a senior citizen who bought their home thirty, forty years ago, now they’re living off of their social security check, they are living on a fixed income and suddenly they find that they own a $700,000 home, they can’t face a $1,000 plus property tax increase, that is going to put a major burden,” said Ramirez-Rosa.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he doesn’t want to raise property taxes on any home worth less than $250,000 but he needs Springfield for that and, so far, Governor Bruce Rauner has not signed on.
@ 2015 WLS News
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