Letter To The Editor: Residents Of Madison County Deserve Effective Leadership

Doing right by the taxpayers and serving them with excellence is what drives my passion for public service. I understand politics is part of the job, but I feel compelled to speak out when elected officials make false statements to mislead the public.

On April 21, I announced a plan to postpone penalties for the first installment of property taxes in Madison County for 2 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the May County Board Meeting, the resolution passed unanimously.

Later, the state legislature decided to offer up their own legislation to provide “relief”. Although the Illinois County Treasurers Association’s legislative committee provided language for the bill, legislators decided to ignore the language from county treasurers with deep experience in local revenue collection, and went their own way. Even Governor Pritzker had urged the legislature to defer to counties to handle property tax relief related to the pandemic, since property taxes are collected locally.

At the time the legislature passed their bill and it was signed by the governor, nearly every county in the state had already sent out their tax bills and had begun collecting taxes. Many counties had already passed their own resolutions to provide relief. Since the legislature passed their “property tax relief” bill, exactly ZERO counties have taken advantage of the hastily-passed legislation.

I found it quite concerning that two of our local state legislators, Monica Bristow (D-Alton) and Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) sent out separate press releases touting the property tax relief that they helped provide, by waiving late penalties. I understand that’s how politics works, so I ignored it. But then

I received in the mail, a postcard from Bristow, paid for by taxpayers, touting that she “provided property tax relief by suspending late payment penalties.”

This claim is simply untrue.

Both Monica Bristow and Katie Stuart were assigned to Governor Pritzker’s “Property Tax Task Force” last year. This group was supposed to solve the problem of our outrageously high property taxes in Illinois, which are the second highest in the nation. Guess how many of their ideas even made it to a committee vote, let alone made it to the floor of the House or Senate? None.

Until these legislators can actually get meaningful property tax reform to the House floor for an actual vote, I suggest we ignore any of their empty claims to pander to us at election time. Residents of Madison County deserve effective leadership, and I’ll continue to do my part to shine the light of truth and transparency as we enter the final stretch of this election cycle.

Chris Slusser

Madison County Treasurer

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