Chicago City Wire

Rep. Steve Reick (R-Woodstock) used House Speaker Michael Madigan's (D-Chicago) property tax bill from 2016 to make his case against an education funding bill that he said is lopsided in favor of Chicago schools.

“We’re doing a lot of arguing today and this week and this month and this session over education funding,” Reick said in a video posted on YouTube. “Our friends from the city of Chicago are clamoring that we give them block grants, special exemptions and all those kinds of things that those of us in the other part of the state have been paying for for years.”

To illustrate his point, Reick said Madigan's Chicago home is valued at $294,000, and he paid $4,600 in taxes in 2016. If Madigan owned the same house in Woodstock, he would face an $11,000 bill, Reick said.

Rep. Steve Reick (R-Woodstock)

“I do believe that it’s time for the city of Chicago to be taxed the same way that the rest of us are,” Reick said. “It’s time for the city of Chicago to ante up. And I will promise you that if any education bill comes through this chamber, if it gives one thin dime from the people of my district to the city of Chicago when they’re not willing to pay for it themselves, they will not get my vote.”