WGIL wanted to take a look at how property taxes in Galesburg and other Knox County towns compare to other similarly sized towns and how equitable those taxes appear to be.To do this we took 41 Illinois towns, and found approximately what the median homeowner paid in property taxes in 2018 and found both the effective tax rate paid and how the amount paid compares to the town’s median household income.
Galesburg homeowners living in their home paid about 2.5 percent of their home’s value in taxes.
In the range of towns that were examined there was a trend that those in the northern part of the state near Chicago paid a higher rate, for example 3.4 percent in Mundelein and Crystal Lake, while Quincy and Oquawka were substantially less, around 2 percent.
There doesn’t seem to necessarily be a connection between how high the effective rate is and city’s wealth.
Morton has a much lower effective rate than Elgin despite having about the same average home value.
Looking at the ratio of income to how much paid in property taxes, meant to be a multiplier to show well the average citizen can afford their town’s property taxes, Oneida scored the best with
Knoxville, Abingdon and Monmouth not far behind and Galesburg just a little behind that.
Nearly all of the least equitable taxes were either near Chicago or home to a state university.
So, while Illinois has some of the highest property taxes in the country, the steepest rates don’t seem to be concentrated locally.
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