Let's Talk Taxes

Wendi Taylor Nations Talks Taxes

Let’s Talk Taxes!

I’ve had the pleasure and honor of talking to thousands of families and businesses in our ward. Our campaign has knocked on more than 5,000 doors since we started asking our friends and neighbors whether City Hall is working for them. The answer is a resounding no.

The stakes for this open aldermanic race could not be higher. As you probably know, my opponent—the political rubber stamp “Tax-Hike Timmy”—voted FOR a major tax hike for our ward last year. And that’s just wrong. 

That’s why, as our next alderman, I will fight to make every neighborhood safer, bring political independence back to our ward, improve our infrastructure and our kids’ schools, and fight against more unnecessary tax hikes.

Toward that end, I am a big believer in making sure you know exactly where I stand on issues impacting our ward.

Our campaign has filled out dozens of questionnaires, done half a dozen public town hall and candidate forums and hosted as many public neighborhood meet and greets. We will continue to put our policy positions on social media and our campaign website in an effort to be completely transparent and better serve our community. You may not agree with every one of my current positions, but I want to make sure you know exactly where I stand on every major issue facing our community.

See something you like? Let us know!

See something you don’t like? Let’s talk about it and see if together, we can come up with a better solution for our ward.

Below you will find my full, public, transparent tax platform. This is where I currently stand on one of the most important issues facing our ward based on being a Lincoln Park homeowner for the last 30 years and with 35 years of experience as an award-winning Chicago business leader who helped bring more than 50,000 new jobs to Chicago.

I look forward to learning WITH you and hammering out even better collaborative solutions in the future. Please chime in! 

Fact: Chicago families and businesses pay some of the highest property and sales taxes in the nation. (1)

Fact: Lincoln Park, Old Town, and Gold Coast families and businesses pay some of the highest taxes in the city. (2)

Fact: Our newly appointed interim alderman, (3) Timmy Knudsen, almost immediately voted to raise our taxes even higher. (4)

Our wallets are already being stretched thin by soaring inflation, and local businesses are closing. Some of our most vulnerable neighbors have seen their property taxes skyrocket 46%.

Our ward has been through YEARS of tax increases, and now even the strong, open, and generous Lincoln Park, Old Town, and Gold Coast homeowners, renters, and businesses are tired. Most of us have paid for city services and benefits we will never access.

For too many local homeowners, like Chicago technology professor Alexander Christine, annual property taxes are as high as their annual mortgage payments. We love our city, but this is not sustainable. It’s not sustainable or responsible for fiscal management.

This threatens our most financially vulnerable the most, including our seniors, and no one wants to see them pushed out of their longtime homes.

We need a change.

That’s why…

As our next alderman, I fully support using federal relief funds designed to help Chicagoans struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic to aid ward residents dealing with significant increases in their property tax bills.

As our next alderman, I will fight against the ill effects of gentrification and the displacement of ward families caused by skyrocketing property taxes. I will fight to help our seniors and our families stay in the neighborhoods they helped build.

To help keep taxes low and fair:

1. I will fight to give all Chicagoans property tax relief. The current system of linking property tax increases to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), even with a limit, does nothing to encourage cost efficiencies in the City of Chicago budget. The expectation of an annual increase with no performance review of the mayor or the City Council beyond a vote every four years does not provide incentive to manage costs. If I were currently in City Council, I would have voted “yes” to de-link the tax increase on Dec. 13, unlike our current interim alderman.

2. I will fight to immediately identify other revenue streams. This would decrease what needs to be paid out of property tax. The City Council needs to take a look at all the City of Chicago taxing districts for opportunities to consolidate and reduce administrative costs to reduce the overall tax levy.

3. I will fight to continue the city’s successful use of tax increment financing districts. The more successful TIF districts have been a very useful tool in Chicgao’s redevelopment. They have enabled the city to provide hundreds of millions of dollars for much-needed infrastructure that would not have otherwise been feasible through traditional public finance. As our next alderman, I will fight to use TIF district funds to remediate contaminated lands, replace deteriorated roads, establish water and sewer lines, construct new schools, and more, all to the net benefit of Chicago citizens and businesses. I fully support the TIF districts that have reinvigorated the Near North Side, including the area around Cabrini-Green, the North Loop, and Goose Island, as well as the Stockyards, Calumet, and other Chicago industrial corridors, and as part of the central business district and surrounding neighborhoods.

4. I will commit to fighting for no new taxes. I’m a realist with nearly 35 years of experience as a Chicago business leader, and I know not every tax increase can be avoided. But I will fight against the creation of NEW taxes to fix old problems.

5. I will commit to fighting for a spending cap and a true balanced budget. When I was helping bring 50,000 new jobs to Chicago and helping roll out Obamacare in Illinois, and helping doctors save lives during COVID by improving ventilator care, I learned you MUST take the politics out of budgeting. The numbers don’t lie—but long-term incumbent politicians do. I’ll fight to tie growth in spending to our economy like all good business owners do. And I’ll fight for true balanced and transparent budgeting.

6. I will commit to fighting for long-needed tax reforms for our families and seniors and fight for a five-year tax freeze for our seniors. Because if your income is fixed, your property taxes should be, too.

Check The Facts:

(1) https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-tax-rates-rank.../

(2) https://chicagocitywire.com/.../511596578-analysis...

(3) “Tax-HikeTimmy” appointed by Mayor Lightfoot Sept. 21, 2022 https://blockclubchicago.org/.../timmy-knudsen-appointed.../

(4) “Tax-Hike Timmy” votes to raise our taxes—Alderman Brendan Reilly introduced the ordinance which would stop the automatic escalator tied to CPI. The vote was on Dec. 13 and his ordinance was number 02022-2498 and it would repeal Section 3-92-075 of the city code.