Massive Property Tax Increases Spur Backlash

The Chicago Tribune reports:

With its stately Tudor-style houses, grand Colonials and cozy cottages, the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood seems an unlikely setting for revolt.

But when homeowners opened their reassessed property tax bills last summer, they were aghast to find their taxes jumped an average of 35 percent and in some cases more than doubled, about equaling the yearly price of fancy college tuition.

At the Mournighan household, property taxes soared nearly threefold to an astounding $35,302 annually, as the assessed value jumped more than 70 percent to $1.35 million. Just five years ago the Mournighans paid a property tax of $5,200.

"We figure it would cost us almost $100 a day in taxes just to remain in our home," said Kathy Mournighan, who raised three children in her big Colonial in the last two decades. "We could dump the house and live on a cruise ship with what we would pay in property taxes."

The greed of government.