SPRINGFIELD – To provide sorely needed flexibility and relief as businesses and counties begin to reopen, State Senator Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) sponsored legislation that would give property owners the means to continue meeting the challenges presented by COVID-19.

"I led the Senate’s economic revitalization working group with one goal in mind. We had to provide people with real, tangible solutions to the enormous challenges brought on by the pandemic,” Koehler said. “Implementing property tax relief measures and extending payment deadlines is where we have to start as we begin to work toward the recovery of our local economies.”

Under this legislation, local businesses and residents would see property tax relief in the form of:

• Empowering county governments to approve 2020 homestead exemptions for those with disabilities, veterans with disabilities and senior citizens, as long as the property had been granted this exemption for 2019.
• Allowing counties with less than 3 million residents to waive interest penalties and fees for late property tax payments due in 2020.
• Deferred property tax sales for counties with less than 3 million residents.

This legislation now awaits the governor’s signature.