BUFFALO GROVE, Ill. – To provide residents property tax relief, state Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D – Buffalo Grove, voted last week to consolidate unnecessary township road districts in Lake County.
“This is a bipartisan effort to rid Lake County of unnecessary layers of government,” Carroll said. “Overlapping agencies and districts inflate our property tax bills. This legislation will lower costs without impacting services.”
Carroll was a chief co-sponsor of House Bill 4637, which passed the House of Representatives last week with overwhelming bipartisan support. The legislation requires that Lake County townships dissolve road districts that oversee less than 15 miles of road, a measure that will eliminate several unnecessary taxing bodies in Lake County. Five Lake County townships –Avon, Newport, Shields, West Deerfield, and Waukegan – will have their road districts dissolved as a result.
Vernon Township, which abolished its road district in 2017, lowered the township property tax levy by 5% following the move. Carroll hopes that this legislation will be a model for the rest of Illinois.
“It’s time to end the status quo of high property taxes subsidizing government waste,” Carroll continued. “This government consolidation initiative is a commonsense step we can take to provide much-needed property tax relief.”
The bill will now head to the governor for his signature.