PEORIA (25News Now) – At Peoria’s legislative breakfast Wednesday, elected officials were sharing their plans for lowering property taxes.

According to the financial information website Smartasset, Peoria has the highest relative property taxes in the nation. They say homeowners are paying roughly three percent of home values. State legislators from both sides of the aisle say they want to do something about this.

Newly sworn in State Senator Chris Balkema (R-Channahon), campaigned on reducing property taxes. His district does not include Peoria, but he represents some surrounding areas. He has made it clear that property taxes are one of his biggest priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

“We want to find ways to redistribute the property tax formula. We’ve got to find ways to reduce property taxes to incentivize housing, to incentivize low-cost housing, there’s lots of areas there,” Balkema said.

State Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria), also wants to lower property taxes, but says she doesn’t want to compromise the services that tax money pays for, like schools.

According to Gordon-Booth, legislators have ideas for lowering property taxes, and she says she wants Peoria to benefit from the end result of their efforts.

“It’s something that’s kinda fresh. We’ve had a couple meetings, and hopefully we’ll be able to have a bipartisan effort in this regard to be able to put money back into people’s pockets,” she said.

Peoria city officials say there are problems with both how affordable housing is and how much is available.

“At one point in time in our region, last summer, we only had 250 homes on the market. So we have a significant challenge when it comes to trying to make sure we have housing stock in the community,” said City Manager Patrick Urich.

City leaders proposed a plan for tax credits to state legislators. One credit would encourage people to buy and renovate houses, and another would encourage developers to build low-income apartments and other rental properties.

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