Evanston officials are proposing a 5.9 percent increase in the property tax levy to help close a projected $8 million revenue shortfall caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, Evanston Now reports.

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas last month reported that property taxes have grown far faster than incomes and inflation over the past two decades in Evanston and elsewhere in the county.

Her report did not break out the change in tax bills for individual government bodies. Many of those agencies, like school districts, are limited by tax cap legislation to increases at the rate of inflation unless they seek voter approval for a larger increase. But others, including home-rule municipalities like Evanston, are not subject to such constraints.

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