preston 011326SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Willie Preston held a press conference Tuesday to outline his Property Justice and Community Recovery Act – long-term structural reform to stop wealth extraction from disinvested communities, which will in turn stabilize neighborhoods.

“For too long, our tax sale system has enabled predatory investors to exploit struggling homeowners and extract wealth from our most vulnerable communities,” said Preston (D-Chicago). “This legislation would flip that broken system on its head. We're working to end risk-free speculation, forgiving crushing tax debt when it's unjust, and putting properties back into the hands of residents, nonprofits and local developers who will actually invest in our neighborhoods."

Preston’s measure would end risk-free tax sale practices by eliminating provisions that allow speculators to profit without meaningful risk or investment in communities. It would increase pre-sale accountability by implementing stronger safeguards and transparency requirements before properties can be sold at tax sales. The legislation also would cap sale-in-error refunds, limiting the amounts speculators can recoup when sales are found to be in error and removing excessive financial incentives for predatory buying.

Additionally, the measure would automatically forgive tax debt when it exceeds 125% of a property's actual value, preventing families from drowning in impossible-to-repay obligations. The legislation further would create the Community Revitalization Property Trust to clear property titles and transfers ownership for just $1 to residents, nonprofit organizations, churches, and small developers committed to community revitalization.

“Every day in Illinois, families lose their homes because the debt has spiraled beyond any reasonable relationship to their property's worth," said Preston. "Meanwhile, speculators have turned our tax sale system into a profit machine that extracts wealth from Black and brown communities. The time to end this practice is now."

Senate Bill 2830 awaits committee assignment.