40 Comments - GoBearsss - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 9:50 am: Wow - huge reversal from their admirable portrayal yesterday of the Governor as John Wayne. First, he’s the new sheriff in town, then he is the guy who can’t play nice with poor ol’ Dick Mell, His Lord and Majesty Michael Madigan, and da Mare. Since when is sucking up to the old boss hogs the requirement for being on the right side of issues? - Skirmisher - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 9:51 am: I suspect that it is not so much what the Governor said but how, when, and where he said it that is the problem. I must note that Blago’s remarks have already got international attention. I noticed last evening that he was quoted on the blog site for the London Evening Standard as “proof” that Chicago is a city so violent and dangerous that military intervention is under consideration. That oughta really help the Olympics bid!!! - Cassandra - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 9:51 am: Maybe the state police don’t have enough to do. Yesterday, in my very quiet Oak Park neighborhood (although close to the not so quiet west side Chicago Austin neighborhood), while I was reading about Blago’s offer to Daley, a state police car drove sedately by going west, to where the good restaurants and stores are. She didn’t look like she was rushing to a crime scene. She didn’t look like she was rushing to anything. Maybe the state police are just bored. - Truthful James - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 9:52 am: Jody Weis made a good suggesteion. The State Police had established a squad to work with Chicago in tracking back guns used in crimes to their owners. The state closed down the squad which, Weis seaid, had been doing good. The fact of the matter is that until the families gain control of their homes and then their neghborhoods the carnage will continue. Closed window drive through police cars will not solve the problem. The localbeat rep program was a start. I think we have to go to the Japanese style of having small area police boxes manned by three policement, but with at least one walking a beat at all times. We have the comms to do it but we don’t have the bodies. Square mile by square mile we have to take back the City of Chicago - Vote Quimby! - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 9:59 am: ==But it shouldn’t be a job that demands actual results..It probably should be a job that takes a dim view of the public’s intelligence…And it should be a job for a big ego. But what kind of job could this be? What line of work fits best with such a curious skill set? Just one. Talk radio host.== or editorial writer…. - Wumpus - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:00 am: Dear Blago, thanks for single handedly ending this silly Olympic Talk. (Take that Daley). Love, Wumpus Maximus - Dan S, a voter and Cubs Fan - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:04 am: “Now that Gov. Blagojevich’s political career is teetering, we’ve been giving some thought to what his next job might be.” How about the Prison laundry? - South Side Mike - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:07 am: Cassandra, Maybe the police officer was…..on patrol! There’s this job of an officer to go by various areas within a beat or district, even if no reported crime has occurred. This often occurs at a slow pace, since it can be hard to spot suspicious activity at 45mph (a speed Oak park doesn’t even allow). Even ISP have patrols, Cassandra. The fact that they were not actively arresting someone does not mean they were wasting time. I hate government bloat, but not every occasion of you spotting a state worker not doing what you think their job should be is an example of bloat. - Cassandra - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:13 am: Uh, why would the state police be patrolling Oak Park, which has, because of its location, a larger than average police force of its own, paid for in large part by our beyond astronomical property taxes. I’m not aware of the OPPD asking for “help” from the state police. I thought Blago was planning to “help” Chicago. Maybe the officer was just lost.. - Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:20 am: Cassandra, there could be a million reasons. You’re uninformed story doesn’t make any valid points. Move along. - South Side Mike - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:21 am: Who knows? Maybe they travel up from Cicero & Berwyn towards 64. Maybe the officer, gasp, lives in Oak Park and was permitted to take the car home that night. The fact is, you don’t know anything about the job but assumed that it had to be wasted time. - wordslinger - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:22 am: There an any number of reasons why a State Trooper would have been in Oak Park. A few include: 1. Serving a warrant. 2. Picking up a suspect. 3. Going home. 4. And yes, going out to eat. Everybody’s gotta do it. Again, this “out-of-control” talk is bad. There’s a spike. But as others have pointed out, we’re still at some of the lowest levels of violent crime we’ve had in 40 years. If it weren’t for the Taste of Chicago shootings and the fact that some aldermen are mad that a from-out-of-town superintendent bounced their guys, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. And they wouldn’t be having it in London, either. It’s a big city, folks. It was never Mayberry. Finally, I don’t think the Sun-Times cover yesterday was supposed to be complimentary. - Plutocrat03 - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:24 am: Perhaps the Governor’s comments can serve to break down the status quo. I don’t care about his personality foibles if his desperation leads him to accidentally do the right thing. In Chicago it seems gangs are allowed their ‘business opportunities’ while the police do enough to make it look like they are doing their jobs. Massive amounts of effort are put forth to ‘protect’ the affluent areas while the poorer areas, not so much. It would be refreshing to see some programs which were used to improve the safety of New Yorkers applied here. I give credit to the Mayor for hiring Supt Weiss (whether he did it for the right reasons or not) . His tenure I am sure is designed to be short, but his job is likely to break down the status quo and to build a new force more based on performance than by whosenca. It must be working for Weiss to be summoned by the high priests for a refresher course on who is in charge. Ald. Isaac Carothers, was more concerned about ruffled feathers of reassigned police department leaders than by the sorry state of affairs. - Ghost - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:25 am: Claling in the national guard is a crazz pree op monent by the Gov. other then a few MP’s, none of them would have law enforcement training. Further mny of these folks have been activated federally and would be barred under the Posse Comitatus Act from serving in such a capacity while under federal activation. This is another sound bite solution offered for press not to solve the issue. The key point glossed over by Rich and the media, that the Gov had made no attemtp to call or discuss solution ideas with those currently responsible for handling the crime issue. The Gov was not interested in a real solution, just a presser. otherwise why not work with those in the field. In fact, the Gov spent more time making calls to Mike madigan which the Gov knew would not be answered, then calling the local police and the mayor to work on a real solution. This is no different then the Gov announcing programs without proposed legialtion or a vehicle in place to effectuate them, its about the press coverage, not a real attempt to handle the problem. I all notice that the Gov does not say he is going to immediatley restore the 9 mil in funding he cut from cease fire, since the increase in crime corrleated withhis slashing their budget. At the same time the Gov is refusing to put bak cease fire dollars, he spent 14 million giving jobs in chicago to the kids of those with political clout! I notice the press has not covered this great incongriutiy of cliaing he wants to fix the violence problem; but cuttunbg cease fires budget by 9 mil and then turning around and handing out 14 mil for politically connected kids!!! - Captain America - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:27 am: The Governor can’t manage his own State problems much less Daleyville’s problems. The Governor has alienated almost every political figure of consequnce in the State and the general electorate - not to mention most Capitol Fax bloggers. In addition to his sociopathic behavior ( I don’t think this is a joke or exaggeration anymore), Blago appears to demonstrate characteristics associated with hyperactivty and attention deficit disorder. For example: he cuts the gang-fighting program,Cease Fire, last year - now all of a sudden he is concerned about escalating violence on the streets of Daleyville - most of which is gang-related. He gives the seniors free tranporation on the RTA - a plum no one was seeking, primarily to make himself look good, and then he cuts transporation funding that jeopardizes free transportation for seniors and discounted fares for students and disabled population. He tries to expand health insurance coverage by executive fiat, but jeopardizes access to Medicaid providers by delaying “extremely low and slow” payments to Meidcaid providers. I’m sure other bloggers can cite innumerable other instances of this political/policy schizophrenia. Blago givith and Blago taketh away without much rhyme nor reason, No wonder, hardly anyone can take the poor guy seriously anymore. He flits from one headline grabbing PR opportunity to another without givng any thooght to the details and the consequnces and contradictions between his words and actions. So I don’t buy the argument that suggests “Oh Lord, Oh Lord, dont let ‘him’ be misunderstood”, he’s just a soul whose intentions are good.” Illinois politics and government has become high political farce. It would be hilarious, except the dysfunction has become so severe that it become a tragedy with real human consequences. - DumberThanUThink - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:33 am: Does not appear Blagoof has picked a real hot button: Gov. Blagojevich says the streets of Chicago are out of control. Do you agree? Yes 339 51.8% No 315 48.2% Number of Voters : 654 First Vote : Thursday, 17 July 2008 16:44 Last Vote : Friday, 18 July 2008 10:30 WGN Radio Meanwhile it safe to say that now Blagoof’s condition is fully out in the open that his impact on the Olympic bid will be about the same as the guy who plays the trumpet outside the United Center after Bulls games. - fed up - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:37 am: pluto In chicago the police manpower is overwhelmingly deployed to poorer areas. Guess what a policeman on every street corner will not fix the problems of what is happening in the homes. - jerry 101 - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:42 am: I think that there might be some merit on that Japan-style policing idea. One cop walking the beat at all times. They should change his route constantly though. There should be cops in vehicles around as well, but I think that cops randomly wandering the streets and talking to people is effective. Small kiosks every couple of blocks would also be a nice addition. Soldiers (even national guard) in the streets? Never, ever a good idea. - Truthful James - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 10:50 am: fed up You are spot on correct. Part and parcel of any solution has got to be the reestablishment of the functioning family unit which has been torn apart by that I call the permissive welfare system and its emphasis on the individual. The latter is only the open link in the chain that makes up the family and the neighborhood. It is going to take some time to turn this monster boat not around but back on course into the mainstream. It involves removing impediments to interclass mobility, to geographic mobility and to the obtaining of an education sufficient to move on both. The strength of the functioning family is essential to focusing and directing its individual members and supplying the moral basis for participating in society. - Plutocrat03 - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 11:21 am: fed up The stories of regular established open air drug markets make my point. If the police patrol poor crime ridden neighborhoods, that is good. If they need help, pull some of the officers from the merchandise mart, magnificent mile and other ’safe’ places to catch more criminals. The acceptance of the status quo is disturbing. Chicago’s property tax rates are lower per assessed 100 than the vast majority of the State. Hire more police if you need them. Pay the officers. A lower crime rate will benefit all. I’m not blaming line officers, but the management is suspect. - Moderate Repub - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 11:45 am: Send NG troops to Chicago? Where is the money for that going to come from? The guards men from teh MP company that went to battle the floods still HAVE NOT been paid. They were told (after working for 4 weeks) that the Il National Guard still doesn’t even know when they will be paid. - Little Egypt - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 11:57 am: A story about this with a picture of Blago was on CNN this morning. Perhaps this is the beginning of Blago and his antics becoming national news. I sure hope so. - Truthful James - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 12:01 pm: Pluto – == Chicago’s property tax rates are lower per assessed 100 than the vast majority of the State. == The Chicago rate and the the other Cook County total tax rates are a function of the classified valuation method used in the County and the Muliplier used agains each parcel of property to establish the equalized valuation. Confused? They did it just to make people confused. Here is how it works. Simply put the raw Assessed Valuation is set parcel by parcel — 16% of Estimated Market Value for residences; 38% for commercial and industrial. There are other ratios but these are the main ones. Enter the State, which assigns an Equalization Factor based on sales ratio studies in Springfield. It is assigned to all property regardless of class. These studies can ell, for instance, that residences are truly being valued at 11% to 12%. The equalization factor has been hovering in the range of 2.60. Applied against residences (we will use the 16%) the Equalized Assessed Value (EAV) rises to 41.6% of Estimated Market Value; for Commercial property (we use 38%) the ratio rises to 98.8% of Estimated Market Value That multiplier is placed against the Assessed vakluation of all property that had been calculated by the County. When we sum the EAV of all properties associated with a taxing body — city, country, school district, etc. — we have the taxable valuation for each. Every taxing body has set a tax levy with the County Clerk Tax Extension Office. That ofice certifies that the levy is legal and may be extended against all property. The extension divided by the Taxaable Valuation creates the Tax Rate. This procedure is common across all Counties in Illinois. No other County is permitted to classify property. All parcels are valued at 33 1/3% of Estimated Market Value, Most do it right and receive a State Equalizing factor at or around 1.0. A moment of thought will show you that given the method of assessment and the State equalizing factor the Tax Rate shiould be lower — much lower — to have the same Burden on the property owner. If and only if all Cook property wre valued as other property and received a multiplier of 1.0, then you can conclude that a lower tax rate means a lower tax burden. However, that is not the case. So please do not assume that because the Cook (Chicago) tax rate is lower that the burden is lower. Cook exists in another universe dsigned to perpetuate the Machine. by creating the dopey dream that the residential taxpayer is better off. See the effect of the Cook equalizer on the residential AV. They can do this only bylowering the statutiry 16% to the de facto 10% to 11% and in raising burden against commercial property to such a level that hose that can move, do. How can we tell? Look at the property atxes per sq.ft. on commercial not at tax rates. Cook is at $5.00 plue. The collar counties are at $1.50 and above. - steve schnorf - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 12:30 pm: James, my taxes in Springfield were $10,000 a year. A home in Chicago of the same value would have taxes between $3000 and $5000, depending on how unlucky they are. I don’t know about Cook County, but property taxes in Chicago are ridiculously low. - 47th Ward - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 12:55 pm: Yes, our property taxes are indeed lower than much of the state Steve. What is ridiculous is this argument ignore the outrageous sales taxes paid in Chicago. Our property taxes are relatively low, but when you count all of the other taxes and fees, it isn’t like we’re getting some sort of tax bargain up here. Back to the question, does anyone else think that the overwhelming majority of political problems the Governor has stem from his refusal to consider an increase in the state income tax? That seems to be the only promise he tries to keep, and to me, the source of much of his problems “governing.” There’s also his unfortunate habit of saying ridiculous things in public. Oh, and a federal investigation or three. Still, if he’d seriously address the tax inequities in this state, I suspect he’d be treated better by people like us who enjoy commenting on this stuff. - Truthful James - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 1:26 pm: Steve – The reason your residential property taxes are low, is because the property taxes on commercial property are so high. That resulted from the higher EAV or valuation (because of the higher ratio and the high multiplier) against which the tax rates are set and the taxes collected. Take only two propertis in Cook each with a market value pf $100K. Given the classifications and multiplier speciified earlier Residential AV = $16K Residential EAV $41.6K Commercial AV = $38K Commercial EAV $98.8K Total Tax base (EAV) $139.4K Taxing Bodies need $10K Tax Rate = 7.17% Tax Bills: Residential: $2.98 Commercial 7.02 Springfield: Residential and Commercial AV each $33.3K Residential and Commercial EAV each $33.3K Total Taxable Valuation $66,6K Taxing bodies need $10K Tax Rate = 15.02% Residential Tax = $5.0K Commercial Property = $5.0K Springfield resident pays $5.0K; Cook (Chicago) pays $2.98K But Springfield commercial pays $5,0K and Chicago (Cook) Commercial pays $7.02K Given the classification system and the multiplier there is no way to raise the Residential taxpayer’s bill without raising the commercial taxpayers bill by a factor of 235% So you can say that Chicago residents pay less, but they lay it off on Chicago businesses. Most people on this Blog (but not me) say that we need to sock it more to businesses. And Assessor Houlihan did just that by in effect capping residential tax dollars — the cap saved residential taxpayers tax dollars, but the difference came from someone. Guess who had to pay even more. So, 47th Street, do you still think the gross property taxes are relatively low? - GoBearsss - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 1:56 pm: Joe Brickhead from DuPage enterring into the fray over Chicago? Meet me at 63rd and Ashland, Brickhead, then send your silly letters. - Ghost - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 2:31 pm: I support sending the ISP to chicao, get them off the highways. It will enable the rest of us to travel about on the highways at a more accelerated pace. - A Citizen - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 2:39 pm: I am really quite disappointed that no one has produced a cartoon caricature of guv outfitted in a John Wayne western set of clothes replete with a strapped on six shooter and a fancy rifle. . . . or maybe an Al Capone fedora, suit, spats, fancy shoes, and a really neat Tommy Gun. Cartoons can be worth a heap of words - especially guv’s words! - Springfield Alum - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 2:57 pm: I just heard a teaser report on WBBM that the westbound Eisenhower has been closed due to police activity. Has the Governor mobilized the State Police already? - 47th Ward - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 3:26 pm: Sorry if I wasn’t clear Truthful James, I meant to say, as a Chicagoan, that Steve Schnorf’s point about my property taxes being low relative to his in Springfield was correct, but only part of the story of the comprehensive tax picture. Thanks for your analysis of a complicated formula that I think we’d agree is way overdue for reform. - Ghost - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 3:42 pm: A citizen, how about a picture of the Gov in the Al Capone getup sporting his tommy gun, and the caption “The only thing I have to fear is the truth” - A Citizen - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 4:53 pm: - Ghost - Quite fitting! LOL - Anon - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 5:09 pm: I think we should strap a helmet on Brickhead Joe, give him an assault rifle, and let him patrol the Englewood neighborhood. To the previous commenter, I too would welcome the opportunity to travel at an accelerated speed. Good point. - wordslinger - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 5:16 pm: Birkett — there’s a guy looking for that Southwest Side/Northwest Side white guy vote. Good for him. This whole discussion has ignored the tough and good job the cops are doing. - downhereforyears - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 6:36 pm: What this whole excerise proves ( responding to this item in the blog) is that Blago is very adept at creating controversy and chaos, but he clearly had NEVER solved a problem. He needs to grow up and go back to what he is good at, wht ever that may be! - Emily Booth - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 7:32 pm: In Tokyo, 2 policemen are stationed in small glass kiosks on street corners every few blocks are so. They are computerized. Don’t forget that guns are illegal in Japan and their society is the opposite of ours in terms of social mores. I read a couple of crime blogs and some police departments really struggle with gang crime. Not the CPD where arrests usually come within days. - Plutocrat03 - Friday, Jul 18, 08 @ 7:37 pm: Truthful I appreciate your long explanation of how the tax is calculated. This is not news, it is a cold cynical poly to make the Daley machine look like it ‘helps’ the little guy. If the city needs more money for its services it is time that the residents start paying for it rather than the citizens of Illinois. A disproporionate amount of State dollars go to Chicago in comparison to the rest of the state, Why should each child in the Chicago school system get more money than any child in southern Illinois? We are supposed to all be equal under the law. Chicagoabs pay 1.1% of theor property caluation, the rset of the stat averages in the high 2’s, some get as high as 4%. If Chicago needs more money for schools, transportation, police or fire, belly up to the bar and pay for it yourself. - steve schnorf - Saturday, Jul 19, 08 @ 9:37 pm: James, thank you for pointing that out. I meant residential property tax rates. 47th. One of the reasons Chicagoans get nickle-dimed with all of the extra layers of taxes, and fees, is the silly effort to keep property taxes (residential) unnaturally low. Downstate taxing districts couldn’t get by if the taxes on a $400,000 house were $3200, either. - Truthful James - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 8:50 am: Steve – Just a footnote. THere is no “residential” property tax rate. The rate is the same forall classes of property in any location. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.