Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that she will “make sure there isn’t a significant burden” on property owners as the city prepares a budget that will include property taxes tied to inflation, which has spiked dramatically.
Lightfoot made the comments one day after the Tribune reported that the mayor’s policy tying property taxes to inflation could mean that the tax increase would nearly quadruple in 2023 to $85.5 million, potentially sticking taxpayers with a hefty bill at a time when residents are struggling and she is up for reelection.
Advertisement
Speaking at an unrelated news conference, Lightfoot said she doesn’t regret tying property tax increases to inflation, casting it as a measure designed to avoid big hikes down the road by meeting growing costs with more modest increases. But, she said, her administration wasn’t expecting inflation to soar like it has and that it will work to ensure property owners aren’t punished by the tax formula.
“Nobody could’ve anticipated what the consequences of inflation that we’re seeing here this year but we’ve started a discussion internally with our finance team, we’ll present a plan as part of our budget to make sure there isn’t a significant burden on taxes for our taxpayers,” Lightfoot said. “That’s not what the plan was so we’ll make sure we take the necessary steps to put some guardrails around the CPI (consumer price index) going into next year’s budget.”
Advertisement
Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons.
Lightfoot told Chicagoans nearly two years ago that her decision to tie how much the city of Chicago collects in property taxes to the rate of inflation made practical sense for both the city and taxpayers, and also showed she had a political discipline that her predecessors lacked.
Until this year, inflation rates hovered around 3% for most of the past 18 years. While national inflation stands around 9% so far this year, the mayor’s plan caps any inflation-based tax hike at 5%. And it will be up to the mayor to decide if the city will take the full 5% bump under her signature tax program or some percentage less.
The mayor’s comments come as the Lightfoot administration is beginning its 2023 budget process with three public forums beginning Thursday at Kennedy-King College, and the question of whether the mayor will utilize her full taxing power will likely come up.
Facing a difficult February reelection bid against a growing field of challengers, as well as a restive Chicago City Council full of aldermen who are also seeking new terms next year, she could decide to forgo some or all of it.
While directed at property owners, the tax is likely to affect not only homeowners but renters and businesses across the city, hitting Chicagoans already reeling from higher costs at gas pumps and in grocery stores. What’s more, the possibility of a tax hike adds to the anxiety and uncertainty property owners are already facing because Cook County property tax bills for this year are late and officials have said there likely will be delays in upcoming years as well.
