Bergman frustrated with property tax bill, too, but says not to blame increases on City Council

QUINCY — Did you do a double-take when you opened your property tax bill sometime in the past few days?

Alderman Jeff Bergman (R-2) did too, and he said he feels your pain. He took a few moments to talk about that at the end of Monday’s Quincy City Council meeting.

However, he also wanted to make sure people don’t blame the city for the increase in their bills.

“When you look at the property tax bill, everybody likes to get mad at the city,” he said. “We’re the ones on TV. We’re the ones who get the most attention from the media. The city gets hammered all the time because of your property tax bill.”

Bergman then explained that the city gets about 15 percent of the total property tax bill, then estimated that the city portion of his own property tax bill increased about $35 from last year.

He said $16 of that $35 increase went toward the police and fire pension funds, and $17 of that increase went toward the Quincy Public Library.

“The city property taxes go to fund the library, police and fire pensions and bond debt that we have for infrastructure projects we’ve completed,” Bergman said. “The property taxes for the city portion of your bill does not go to the daily city operations. There are tax revenues that we collect throughout the year to fund the city’s operations, so any frustration with misuse or better use that we could use city tax dollars with to run the city, that is more of a budget discussion.”

Rocky Murry addressed aldermen during the public forum portion of the meeting, claiming that his property taxes increased nearly 400 percent.

“I don’t live in an affluent neighborhood,” he said. “I live on a small street that gets a lot of traffic from a business, and if I’m paying what I’m paying where I live, I can’t begin to imagine what people are paying who live in these nice homes in these affluent neighborhoods. 

“I believe what (long-time radio host) Paul Harvey said: ‘Self-government won’t work without self-discipline.’ We need to figure out a way to stop increasing taxes and (start) decreasing taxes. What I have to put back on a daily event to pay my property taxes at the end of the year is ludicrous.”

He said the high taxes on properties, license plates and gas are among the reasons people are leaving Illinois.

Bergman said he’s “incredibly frustrated” with the property tax bill. 

“I hate it,” he said.

Bergman then lauded the City Council for using $2 million from General Fund money and other sources of revenue to be applied to the police and fire pensions to help keep property taxes as low as they were. 

“That $2 million is city tax dollars that we could have used to provide city services,” he said. “The elephant in the room is police and fire pensions. There is no great answer for it. We have no control over the police and fire pensions locally. The only thing we can control is the amount of policemen and firemen we employ, which plays into the total cost at the end of the day, and how much of that burden we are going to put on the property taxpayer as opposed to using other funds we have available. We’re cannibalizing every other department in the city by doing that to keep property taxes as low as we can.”

Bergman said the City Council has “done its very best” to keep property taxes as low as they can.

He said he learned from Comptroller Sheri Ray that the EAV (equalized assessed value) rose about 9.85 percent for this year’s taxes.

“The city does not have any control over setting that rate,” Bergman said. “Even if all the governing bodies did not raise their property tax levy at all, your property tax bill has gone up 10% right off the bat.”

Bergman also said the state does the public and business owners “zero favors” regarding taxes collected.

“It’s doing nothing but driving people out of the state,” he said. “It’s even more incumbent upon the local taxing bodies to make sure we try to hold the line, as much as possible, on the city portion of your property tax bill.”

Richie Reis (D-6) appreciated Bergman’s comments.

“Just thanks to Alderman Bergman for breaking that down for the people out there watching and the people in the audience,” he said.

“I hate taxes,” Mike Adkins (R-3) said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The amount of money that goes to the city from Bergman’s property tax bill was clarified from an earlier version.