Once a senior, always a senior
Pritzker signs bill extending Senior Homestead Exemption ahead of next property-tax bill
Backed by state Rep. Fred Crespo, Gov. Pritzker touts a new law extending the Senior Homestead Exemption as a way “to make lives a little easier for our older residents.” (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
CHICAGO — The governor signed a bill into law Tuesday extending the Senior Homestead Exemption in Cook County from year to year, effective ahead of the next property-tax bills due in March.
The new law basically settles that, once a senior citizen has established proof of both age and residence, there’s no need to reapply for the exemption every year, a previous nuisance Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi called “a burden and an imposition” to senior citizens.
The common-sense proposal goes back at least to former Cook County Assessor James Houlihan, who advocated it a decade ago. State Rep. Fred Crespo of Hoffman Estates said at Tuesday’s signing ceremony that he’d been pushing it for 10 years in the General Assembly, and he led the way Tuesday in joking about it.
“Human nature dictates that you grow older, not younger,” Crespo said. “Once you apply at 65, it should be automatic every year unless the worst thing happens and you pass away.”
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Human nature dictates that you grow older, not younger. … Once you apply at 65, it should be automatic every year unless the worst thing happens and you pass away.”
Rep. Fred Crespo (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
“It makes no sense that year after year seniors have to keep reapplying for the exemption,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who also emphasized it was taking effect immediately, ahead of the deadline for the first-installment tax bills in March, in effect moving the active date up from the 2020 tax year to the 2019 tax year, being collected this year in Cook County.
Pritzker said the new law “will cement some property-tax relief for our Cook County seniors” and is intended “to make life a little easier for our older residents,” who “won’t have to jump through hoops again to prove that, yes, they remain senior citizens.”
“This is a huge boon for seniors,” Kaegi said, adding that one of the keys to the new law is that it mandates the sharing of data between government agencies “so we can keep track of people who die or move.”
According to Crespo, last year 26,000 Cook County seniors “left almost $45 million on the table” by not taking advantage of the exemption, which allows seniors to shave as much as $8,000 off the equalized assessed value of their home.
Pritzker said it’s “helping seniors afford to stay in their homes,” and he emphasized that it also follows through on “one of the most essential tenets of my administration — streamlining the bureaucratic hurdles that prevent too many of our residents, especially our seniors, from accessing the benefits they deserve.”
Pritzker noted that the signing took place on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration, adding, “I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish.”