The Fair and Honest Comparison of Property Tax Rates

If we take a gander at our property tax bills, we’ll see that it consists of taxes for 15 different government entities.

The property tax rate for the Village of River Forest is the rate that goes to the Village of River Forest. The other rates are for taxes that go to other government bodies. Nearly 75% of our property taxes go to our superb public schools. Just 11.15% of our property taxes go to the Village of River Forest.

The village’s rate is the only honest and accurate rate to compare to other communities. The table below shows the municipal property tax rate for all 133 Cook County municipalities.

Eighty of these towns have a higher municipal property tax rate than River Forest — 60 percent have a higher
municipal tax rate than River Forest.

River Forest’s property tax rate is among the lowest 40 percent. That¹s pretty darned low for a “bedroom suburb” that has no industry or major shopping centers to ease the burden on residential property taxes.

That’s a far different picture than the deceptive claims of the opponents of home rule who compare communities by using the total “composite” tax rate adding up all 15 taxing jurisdiction. But the Village of River Forest has no control over the property taxes charged by the public schools, Cook County, River Forest Township, River Forest Park District, or the other entities listed on our tax bills. The opponents are being extremely deceptive when they claim River Forest has “the worse” property tax rate

The table below shows the 2011 municipal property tax rate for each of the 133 towns in Cook County. Eighty of them have a higher tax rate than River Forest (highlighted in green).