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I live in Wheeling, IL. One of the reasons that Illinois has high property tax rates is that Illinois is one of the few states in which voters elect library boards and park boards, all of whom levy property taxes. In almost all other states, libraries and parks are administered by city governments, and that’s more efficient.

Good points. However, at least for DuPage, the COD, and local school districts make up at least 50% of the tax bill...Also unified school districts are far more efficient than separate elementary and secondary districts—we chose unified over a split district because it did reduce costs, and we chose our town in large part based on the schools—we pay but they always get top billing~at least for now. My kids have done very well, so I don’t complain too much.

I agree about schools. I’ve also lived in CA, CO, KS, AR, OK, and OH. In those states, each school district has at least one high school, at least one junior high, and at least one elem. school. Those districts usually have lower property tax rates than Illinois districts. The majority of those states have higher test scores and/or lower drop-out rates, compared to Illinois.