CITY HALL — With a record property-tax increase taking effect this summer, one alderman wants to expand a proposed rebate program to landlords who hold the line on rents.
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) said he's heard from community groups and renters concerned that they're defenseless against landlords passing the tax increase on through raised rents, "and this is the solution we came up with."
Ramirez-Rosa submitted his proposal at last week's City Council meeting. Building on a previous proposal he worked on through the Progressive Reform Caucus to provide tax-hike relief to homeowners with household incomes within four times the poverty level, it would also provide rebates to property owners — if they don't raise tenants' rents.
Reporter Ted Cox on competing proposals to help keep rents lower.
Ramirez-Rosa explained Monday that it "expands that rebate to rental properties as long as they can prove," through affidavits or leases, "that they have not raised tenants' rents in the last year." It would also apply to buildings where more than half the tenants have household incomes within four times the poverty level.
Yet this latest piece of tax reform ahead of a record $589 million hike in property taxes, to be felt when bills go out in August, is just one of many moving pieces.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said he'd prefer providing relief by increasing the standard homeowner exemption, but that would take action in the General Assembly — where it's bottled up in the ongoing budget impasse between legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner.
"They have said they would move forward on a rebate once it's clear that expanding the exemption in Springfield is dead," Ramirez-Rosa said.
Yet there are already other competing rebate proposals pending in the City Council. Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) has proposed what Ramirez-Rosa calls "a modest rebate" for homeowners with household income under $100,000. Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) has proposed rebates for longtime homeowners — largely seniors, Ramirez-Rosa said.
All are being negotiated on the size of the rebate and the number of people eligible. The Progressive Caucus proposal, for instance, creates a formula based on assessed value and the size of the tax increase, setting different rebates for each individual homeowner.
Yet Ramirez-Rosa pointed out none of these address rental properties, leaving tenants defenseless against landlords who might pass on the property-tax increase.
Just last month, renters in Logan Square, including part of Ramirez-Rosa's 35th Ward, marched against skyrocketing rents rising up to $600 a month.
Landlords have complained that, given the size of the record tax increase, they can't help but pass some of the cost on to tenants.
With bills going out this summer, Ramirez-Rosa said it is important to "get out ahead of that and say, 'Hey, we have to find a way to provide relief.'" He called his proposal "a backward way to say, 'Hey, you don't have to pass on the property-tax increase to your tenants, because you can get a rebate.'"
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