Leaked to media outlets earlier this month, the draft is all we have from an 88-member body that was supposed to deliver its final report Dec. 31. Unless the final version arrives soon and in much better shape, this task force appears likely to go down as another well-meaning but ineffectual attempt to rein in Illinois’ property taxes, which are now the second-highest in the nation.

As a working document for meaningful reform, the document falls short in several ways. While sounding appropriate concern about property taxes, the task force offers neither the thorough fact-finding nor the analytical rigor needed to support effective legislation. Procedurally, the way forward is left to the reader’s imagination.

The draft includes no recommendations from the committee as a whole. Rather, it summarizes recommendations of various subcommittees, leaving doubt as to how much backing any given proposal might have within the task force. That’s not a strong show of support for legislative proposals likely to encounter resistance from powerful interest groups in Springfield. Pritzker himself already has undercut one task force idea, dismissing a suggestion that expanding the sales tax to services might ease reliance on property taxes. As my colleague Greg Hinz reported, GOP task force members disavowed the task force report, complaining their ideas weren’t included.

The subcommittee recommendations—at least as summarized in the draft—have a slap-dash quality. For example, one section makes the rather obvious point that Illinois’ plethora of local government bodies, numbering nearly 7,000 at last count, represents potentially fertile ground for property tax savings. The report touts possible consolidations of local agencies ranging from drainage authorities to school districts. But it offers no numbers, no estimates of how many agencies might be eliminated, how much money could be saved by consolidation, or how much those savings might reduce property taxes.

The task force similarly declines to quantify potential property tax savings from other proposals, such as new limits on tax-increment financing or tighter rules for property tax assessments and appeals. All these ideas sound good, but without credible estimates of potential benefits, lawmakers can’t determine which are worth pursuing.

Also unclear is what happens next. Presumably task force leaders expect their work to spawn legislation, but the draft report outlines no next steps at all.

State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, a Democrat from Aurora who served as co-chair of the task force subcommittee on school funding, defends the panel’s work.

“We are committed to reducing property taxes,” she says

Kifowit says the lack of specific estimates of potential savings from consolidation and other recommendations reflects the realities of local control over property tax systems. Circumstances vary from place to place, she explains, making it both difficult and improper for the state to delve into such details.

“We have a system of local control,” she says. “For the state to get into that minutiae is not appropriate. Consolidation needs to go forward at the local level.”

Kifowit says she hopes the task force will finalize its report by the end of this week, noting it must be submitted by Jan. 24 if proposed bills based on its recommendations are to be drafted for the spring legislative session. Asked what bills might result from the report, she says “all aspects of the report should be considered for legislation.”

Based on that timetable, there’s little reason to expect the final report to improve much on the draft. And that means this latest property-tax-reduction initiative isn’t likely to improve on previous efforts. By leaving the “minutiae” of reform to local agencies with a huge stake in the status quo, the task force all but ensures that little will change. And that lends credence to fears that the task force was little more than window-dressing designed to win support for Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s graduated income tax proposal from wavering Democrats besieged by complaints from constituents fed up with ever-escalating property taxes.

Illinois already is feeling the effect of politicians’ failure to address those complaints. Property taxes have become too much to bear, even for a billionaire like Pritzker. Before he was elected, the governor went so far as to remove toilets from one of his homes to reduce taxes on the property.

The governor is just one of millions across Illinois suffering from an unsustainable property tax burden. Unaffordable tax bills are forcing older people to sell longtime family homes, while depressing the value of houses and commercial properties throughout the state. An industry that generates fully 16 percent of economic activity in Illinois is stagnating as property taxes squeeze out more potential homebuyers and reduce returns on local real estate investments.

The draft report of the property tax relief task force offers little hope that elected officials will do what’s necessary to reverse these trends.