State Representative Jeanne Ives, who is challenging Governor Bruce Rauner in the Republican gubernatorial primary, made her campaign strategy more clear Thursday. She intends to target the governor on key issues where Rauner has angered conservatives in his own party.
On Thursday morning, she called for the repeal of the Illinois Trust Act, which protects people here illegally from being detained by law enforcement simply because of their immigration status.
Ives has now joined a list of lawmakers as co-sponsor of a bill that was filed in August, two days after Rauner signed the bill into law.
Ives held a news conference Thursday. She was joined by Brian McCann, whose brother, Dennis, was struck and killed by an illegal immigrant who was allegedly driving drunk. After posting bond, the suspect fled.
Again, the basic premise of the Trust Act is to make sure ICE gets judicial warrants before receiving cooperation from local and state law enforcement.
* But a valid point here…
Rauner said he would meet with victims families before signing sanctuary state. Another lie. Another betrayal. He never did.
I am ready to take charge in Springfield for the people and restore the rule of law.
The city of Chicago on Tuesday settled a civil rights case involving an ICE detainee who was arrested during a raid on his home after he was wrongfully identified as a gang member.
Wilmer Catalan-Ramirez, 31, was seriously injured in a March 27 arrest after six U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered his Back of the Yards home without a warrant, according to court documents.
Catalan-Ramirez, who lawyers say was never a gang member, was placed in the Chicago Police Department’s “over-inclusive” gang database, which effectively stripped him of any privacy protections under Chicago’s sanctuary city ordinance.
His attorneys filed a lawsuit in May alleging that ICE agents relied on false records to identify Catalan-Ramirez as a gang member when they unlawfully raided his home in March. Prior to being detained by ICE, Catalan-Ramirez had no criminal record in Cook County, records show.
Under terms of the settlement, the city has agreed to modify its records to make clear that Catalan-Ramierz is not a gang member.
The Chicago Public Schools’ inspector general is urging the Chicago Board of Education to fire schools chief Forrest Claypool, a longtime friend of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, for lying during an ethics investigation, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday.
Inspector General Nicholas Schuler recommended Claypool’s firing in a lengthy, still-secret memo he gave to Board of Ed members late Tuesday, the sources said.
In the memo, Schuler reported his findings from a 16-month ethics investigation of CPS’ top attorney that he found Claypool tried to block, according to the sources.
“Forrest made a mistake,” Emanuel said in a written statement Wednesday night. “There’s no question about that, and I take that very seriously. But he was also big enough to stand up, admit his mistake and publicly apologize for it. That says a lot about who Forrest is, and that’s the Forrest I know.
“These are serious allegations, and I know the board is reviewing them with the scrutiny they merit — but Forrest himself has already acknowledged the lapse in judgment and apologized for it. And I think we should all take a deep breath before making snap judgments about a man with a sterling reputation and a sterling record of public service.”
* Press release…
After a 16-month CPS Inspector General’s investigation and news reports of disturbing ethics infractions, Attorney General candidate Jesse Ruiz is calling on Forrest Claypool, the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, to resign immediately.
“I am calling on Forrest to do the right thing and resign from his post as CEO of Chicago’s Public Schools,” said Ruiz, who served for more than four years as Vice President of the Chicago Board of Education and also served as Interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools. “Repeatedly misleading the Inspector General is unacceptable, especially at a time when trust in our government is at an all-time low. The people of Chicago expect our leaders to always set an example of integrity and not violate the public trust. Forrest has failed this test.
“From day one, I blew the whistle on the conflicts of interest that led to this investigation,” Ruiz added. “At every point, Mr. Claypool has stonewalled the Inspector General’s investigation, and his actions must have consequences. He should resign immediately.”
The CPS investigation has centered on whether Claypool acted improperly in urging the Board of Education to retain a law firm, even though the CPS general counsel’s ongoing financial relationship with the firm violated the school system’s conflict of interest policy.
When CPS ethics officers attempted to intervene, Claypool overruled them. Since then, the CPS Inspector General has repeatedly criticized Claypool for setting up roadblocks to interfere with the ongoing ethics investigation and for making repeated misstatements in interviews with investigators. Claypool has since apologized for those misstatements.
*** UPDATE *** From Forrest Claypool…
“I made a mistake. I can’t put my mind back in that high pressure place–when we were negotiating with the CTU and fighting to keep schools funded and open in the final days of the legislative session. But I look at the facts today and see that I misread the situation, and made mistakes in judgment, and I apologize for this.
“I pursued the goal of keeping schools open with the same single-mindedness with which I pursued every public position I’ve held over nearly 30 years. Like anyone else, I’m embarrassed by my mistakes, but remain proud of how we’ve moved this system forward despite seemingly insurmountable financial hurdles.
“However, let’s be clear about what this situation is and what it isn’t.
“This is not a case of anyone profiting off of CPS; no one in this story gained a dollar. This is not a case of anyone taking anything from children; this is a case of fighting to get more resources for children. In fact, the only ones who profited from this pursuit of justice were our students, who have another $450 million of funding from the state due to the efforts our team.
“To put this in perspective: This situation is about how I zealously tried to get Chicago students their fair share of state education dollars, after years and years racial discrimination, and getting those kids the best possible legal representation.
“While I continue to have a strong disagreement with Mr. Schuler’s interpretation of the Board policy – which I believe was written to prevent profiteering off the schools – I have already acknowledged that in my desire to ensure the best possible legal representation, and keep public attention focused squarely and solely on the civil rights injustice against CPS kids, that I mishandled some matters.
“I have fully acknowledged my mistakes in judgment and apologized. I apologize again today. But I do not regret the passion for justice that led to that mistake. I will always fight hard to ensure that CPS children, regardless of race or income, receive the educations they deserve.
“With apologies for errors I made along the way, I stand proud of the work I’ve done at CPS and throughout my career in service to the City of Chicago, to give its residents better parks, better trains and buses, and, most importantly, the best schools.”
The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to overrule a 40-year-old precedent that allows compelling public employees to pay some fees to unions that represent them, an important tool for the U.S. labor movement.
It was another dramatic reversal in a high-profile case before the high court, and at least the third time since President Trump’s inauguration that the Justice Department has renounced its past positions, some held for decades.
It puts the administration squarely on the side of conservative legal activists, who have complained for years that the requirement violates the free-speech rights of those who don’t want to join the union or pay fees to it.
The Supreme Court precedent the administration wants to overturn says that unions may charge all employees for the cost of collective bargaining, but not for the union’s political activities. About 20 states allow that practice.
After the Trump administration announced their support of an anti-union Supreme Court case spearheaded by Bruce Rauner, Janus v. AFSCME, JB Pritzker released the following statement:
“Donald Trump endorsed Bruce Rauner’s lawsuit to obliterate unions and hurt working families across our state and country,” said JB Pritzker. “After failed attempts to force his special interest agenda on Illinois, Rauner is partnering with Trump to roll back worker’s rights on a national scale. This case could threaten the mere existence of public sector unions, and there is too much at stake for working families to have their governor and president working against them. As governor, I will always stand with the labor movement and fight these attempts to hurt working families.”
Nothing from the other Democratic candidates as of yet for any statewide office, including AG. Kinda surprising, but Pritzker has the staff to stay on top of this stuff
An inevitable candidate. Accusations of a rigged primary. Early commitments from organized labor.
The Illinois Democratic primary for governor sounds a lot like Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential primary campaign — which didn’t end up well for the party.
Opponents of billionaire J.B. Pritzker, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in Illinois, are now using the Clinton example in an effort to level the field, warning that the party risks blowing a prime opportunity to knock off a vulnerable Republican governor by repeating the same mistakes it made in 2016.
Evoking Sen. Bernie Sanders, Pritzker’s top competitors — Chris Kennedy, the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, and state Sen. Daniel Biss, a Harvard-educated mathematician — say they’ve been elbowed out at every turn by party insiders. They say the Democratic establishment in one of the nation’s biggest blue states has greased the skids for an untested candidate, simply because he has bottomless pockets.
Illinois Democrats are so mesmerized by Pritzker’s unlimited cash pile, and so presumptuous that he will win because of it, Biss says, that few are asking the most basic question: can one wealthy businessman, Pritzker, defeat another wealthy businessman, Gov. Bruce Rauner, in a general election?
C’mon, Daniel. Few are asking? Every professional political type has asked that question about Pritzker. That’s their number one question: Can this guy Pritzker beat Rauner? Getting that man out of office is what they care about.
They didn’t just mindlessly follow the money. Hey, the money’s good, for sure. Pritzker’s cash allows everyone to concentrate on “important” stuff like Madigan’s House races. But all that is for naught if Rauner wins.
* While I do not doubt that Madigan is discouraging people from contributing to Kennedy, Chris’ family has so far given their own flesh and blood less than Biss’ family has given him. Despite his vast powers, and he has many, Madigan cannot control the entire Kennedy clan. They need to step up here.
Also, one of Kennedy’s top advisors is Treasurer Michael Frerichs’ chief deputy. Frerichs recently endorsed Pritzker. Frerichs is no Madigan pawn.
* And this whole idea of comparing Pritzker-2018 to Clinton-2016 is a bit much. Clinton started the primary with enormous advantages (including party support), but she also began with lots of serious baggage that everybody knew about. Pritzker started out as a virtual unknown outside Chicago.
Besides, Clinton went on to win the national popular vote and Illinois has no electoral college. She also won Illinois by 17 points.
It’s just not a great comparison. More like grasping at straws. Plus, if you wanna bring Hillary Clinton into the topic, you also need to bring in Bernie Sanders. If Pritzker is Hillary, who is Bernie? Despite their claims to the mantle, neither Biss nor Kennedy has managed to fire up vast numbers of party members to lead a Bernie-esque insurgency. Maybe that will happen before March. But it certainly is not in evidence today. Bernie raised a ton of money from every-day people to effectively counter Hillary’s big bucks from special interests, unions and the wealthy. These two guys, not so much.
* What I’d really like to see is polling, or research or other info showing Kennedy or Biss doing significantly better against Rauner next year than Pritzker, or Pritzker doing so much worse that he could actually lose the race. The last numbers I heard months ago (Dem and GOP polling) had Pritzker beating Rauner something like 52-38. But, whatever, it’s way early. That can change. Tell me how.
Until then, it’s all just a bunch of posturing, whiny words.
Chris Kennedy, Democratic candidate for Governor, called on Joe Berrios to step down from his position as Cook County Assessor following another Chicago Tribune investigative piece on how the Cook County property tax assessment system is rigged against Cook County taxpayers. Kennedy released the following statement:
“The property tax racket run by Joe Berrios and political insiders needs to end and it needs to end today. Berrios has used the property tax system that is defunding our public schools, defunding our social safety net, and defunding efforts to end gun violence as means to keep the political machine in power and enrich the entitled, politically connected few at everyone else’s expense. We will never change the status quo and restore opportunity to our state as long as political insiders like Joe Berrios remain in office.
We can no longer rely on the traditional democratic process because Berrios uses his position as the Cook County Democratic Party Chairman to intimidate anyone who opposes this property tax racket. And, we cannot trust the state party to step in and fix a broken property tax system, as the state Democratic Party Chairman is a property tax appeals lawyer whose personal finances are dependent on the status quo.
All of this means the voters get sidelined and the machine and the status quo system back a wealthy self-funding candidate who will continue to support the racket with impunity. We need radical change and we need it today. Because, if we don’t move away from property taxes and reform the broken system, we won’t embrace a progressive tax. If we don’t embrace a progressive income tax, we will never fund schools properly or restore community safety or rid our cities and towns of the scourge of violence. If we don’t fund schools properly, we will never educate our kids to be economically self-sufficient.
Keeping leaders like Joe Berrios in office puts the very future of our state and our country at risk. We need integrity in our institutions and we need accountability from our elected politicians. We have people in in the city, the county and in Springfield doing their jobs who’ve suffered no consequence for failing to live up to their responsibilities. That ends now.
Joe Berrios should step down and if he won’t, the voters should remove him from office this March.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the Joe Berrios campaign…
We strongly advise Chris Kennedy to focus on his failing campaign instead of throwing temper tantrums while claiming as “unfair” the system he has directly benefited from.
In 2016 and 2017, Kennedy appealed the assessed value of his property at Wolf Point. He has also appealed on his residence. In fact, going back decades and starting with the Merchandise Mart, the Kennedy family has used the appeal system to receive many reductions in assessed value.
If Kennedy truly feels the system is “unfair,” I call on him to return to taxpayers the millions of dollars in tax savings resulting from those reductions.
We find it hypocritical that Kennedy remains silent about James Houlihan, the previous assessor whose mismanagement of the office and violations of Cook County policies resulted in a major lawsuit against the County which has dragged on for years. Houlihan is now a key advisor to candidate Kennedy.
Assessor Berrios has focused on improving the assessment system he inherited by making it fair and equitable for every Cook County resident. He is providing all information, data and other cooperation requested in the County’s review of the property assessment system being conducted by the Civic Consulting Alliance.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Biss campaign…
“Chris Kennedy is biting the hand that fed him in asking Joe Berrios to resign, and he misses the point entirely,” said Biss campaign manager Abby Witt. “The problem is larger than any single person in one elected office. It’s that the wealthy and well-connected have benefitted from a rigged system they created decades ago to avoid paying their fair share in property taxes. And now our schools and social services, and the people who rely on them are struggling.
“Instead of spouting empty threats, there are two real solutions this problem. The first is to pass legislation, like the HOME Act, which Daniel Biss introduced this summer that fixes Illinois’ broken property tax valuation, assessment, and appeals system. The second is to let voters pick someone else on election day.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Oppo dump hurled over the transom…
KENNEDY ACCEPTED $10,000 FROM FORMER ASSESSOR JAMES HOULIHAN, WHO KNOWINGLY SENT OUT INACCURATE PROPERTY VALUATIONS & UNDER-ASSESSED COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES ACCORDING TO A TRIBUNE REPORT
James Houlihan Donated $10,000 To Kennedy For Illinois. [Kennedy for Illinois Q3 D2, Illinois State Board Of Elections, filed 10/16/17]
James Houlihan, Who Donated $10,000 To Kennedy, Was Cook County Assessor From 1997 To 2010. “James Houlihan – Assessor From: 1997-2010.” [Cook County Assessor’s Office, 10/16/17]
As Cook County Assessor, James Houlihan Knowingly Sent Out Inaccurate Property Valuations. “As assessor, James Houlihan knowingly sent out inaccurate property valuations. The future consequences could be costly… For more than a decade, the Cook County assessor’s office hid a secret inside the massive computer programs used to calculate property tax assessments for single-family homes. It didn’t look like much — just a few snippets of code amid thousands of lines — but it created erroneous valuations for homes throughout the county, affecting the tax bills sent to more than 1 million residential property owners every year. What the code did was deceptively simple: It decreased every estimated home value in the county by about 40 percent, a troubling practice that ignored legal requirements set out in county ordinances. The artificially low values threw the property tax system so far out of whack that it may have violated provisions of the state constitution. But, shrouded by an opaque and convoluted assessment system, these widespread inaccuracies were invisible to the average homeowner. The Tribune already has revealed how the county’s assessment system under Joseph Berrios has been riddled with errors that punished the poor while providing breaks to the wealthy. Now the investigation shows that the assessor’s office knowingly produced inaccurate property assessments during the long tenure of his predecessor, James Houlihan, and even as far back as the 1980s. Houlihan removed the snippets of code in 2009, a year before he left office.” [Chicago Tribune, 6/10/17]
The Chicago Tribune Reported That Houlihan Knowingly Under assessed Commercial Properties While Assessor. “When Houlihan took charge of the assessor’s office in 1997, those with deep knowledge of the property tax system would have understood that the ongoing drastic undervaluation of residential homes left the county vulnerable to legal challenges. One way to fix that problem would have been to raise residential assessments to legal levels. But that would have increased many people’s taxes, and that is not what Houlihan chose to do. Instead, records show, the assessor’s office left the residential level where it was — at 10 percent — and began taking measures that reduced the levels for commercial and industrial properties. Over the next decade, the median commercial and industrial assessment levels in Cook County fell by more than a third. In 2007, the median level for commercial property was about 17 percent — less than half of what it was supposed to be, according to state studies. Internal studies unearthed in the O’Keefe lawsuits show the assessor’s office knew about the low valuations. One report, titled ‘The Effects of the Decline in Commercial Assessment,’ detailed a significant drop in commercial assessment levels between 2003 and 2004. [Chicago Tribune, 6/10/17]
PROPERTY TAX LAWYER TULLY HAS GIVEN TO CHRIS KENNEDY; THAT LAW FIRM HANDLED KENNEDY’S APPEALS & HEAD TOM TULLY IS A FORMER ASSESSOR
3/23/17: Mathew Tully, An Attorney At Tully & Associates, Donated $1,000 To Kennedy For Illinois. [Kennedy for Illinois Q2, Illinois State Board of Elections, filed 7/17/17]
Chris Kennedy Used Tully & Associates, A Firm That Has Donated At Least $60,000 To Property Tax Officials, To Appeal The Assessment On His Home And One Of The Buildings He Was Developing. “But even as Kennedy took to social media and forums to complain about a “rigged system,” he was actively pursuing a second property tax appeal of his own — asking for a 20 percent reduction for his personal home in the Chicago suburb of Kenilworth… It was penned by Kennedy’s attorneys, Tully & Associates, a firm has donated at least $60,000 to members of the board that considers such requests. The firm also represented Kennedy and business partners when they won a nearly 63 percent reduction in one of the buildings under development, according to Crain’s Chicago.” [Politico, 7/25/17]
Chris Kennedy Used The Law Firm Of Former Cook County Assessor Tom Tully. “Kennedy and associates appealed, using the law firm of former Cook County Assessor Tom Tully, and the final value ended up being set at $5.109 million, a cut of almost 63 percent.” [Crain’s Chicago Business, 5/23/17]
CHRIS KENNEDY WAS STILL APPEALING HIS PROPERTY TAXES UNTIL IT BECAME A POLITICAL ISSUE, THEN QUIETLY WITHDREW HIS REQUEST
Chris Kennedy Was Pursuing A Second Appeal Of His Property Assessment Until A Story On Opponent Pritzker’s Property Taxes Broke, After Which Kennedy Quietly Withdrew His Appeal. “But even as Kennedy took to social media and forums to complain about a ‘rigged system,’ he was actively pursuing a second property tax appeal of his own — asking for a 20 percent reduction for his personal home in the Chicago suburb of Kenilworth. Kennedy then quietly withdrew his appeal request, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO, seven days after a story surfaced that was critical of property tax reductions won by his chief primary opponent, billionaire J.B. Pritzker.” [Politico, 7/25/17]
As I’ve stated, we need to reform our flawed and inequitable property tax system. But I’m not here to score political points by attacking other Democrats. That’s what my opponents are doing when we should be focused on defeating Bruce Rauner. The voters will ultimately decide if Mr. Berrios deserves another term.
* The 2017 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Political Tavern goes to DH Brown’s…
Where former statehouse legends, sitting legislators, and legislative staff from both parties swap war stories over too many beers and a few bowls of popcorn. For decades Brown’s has been a rite of passage for Springfield political types. This place oozes with character and maintains a genuine dive bar feel that can only be achieved through its decades of history.
Dem event in the back with a Rep event in the front…at the same time. And all walks of life mingling in between.
* The 2017 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Political Restaurant goes to an establishment far outside the “sandbox,” Alexander’s Steakhouse…
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems to have become the place in the last two sessions. Good food, good, fast service
Honorable mention: Rep. Kelly Cassidy’s apartment.
* On to today’s categories…
* Best House Secretary/Admin. Assistant
* Best Senate Secretary/Admin. Assistant
Remember to keep in mind that this is about the intensity of the nominations, not the number of nominations, so make sure to fully explain your votes. And, please, nominate in both categories. Thanks.
Not to mention the entire premise triggers Godwin’s Law. So, the Tribune automatically loses the argument right away. And, man, take a look at their ratio. Whew. Gonna be a long, brutal day at the ivory tower.
* Also…
Respectfully, this analogy won’t end well for you. First it ignores that LGBT folks are a protected class and Nazi’s, for good reason, are not. Second, should an avowed segregationist have to serve me at a lunch counter? There are grounds to object to this, but boy, it ain’t this
A lawyer for House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) has threatened Local Government Information Services, which owns this publication, via two cease and desist letters after reporters asked questions about the legislator.
Professor Jane E. Kirtley, the Silha professor of media ethics and law at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, said such tactics are not uncommon and are aimed at suppressing unwanted media attention.
“I am very troubled when public officials – who know that they would have to prove ‘actual malice’ (knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth) to prevail – attempt to dissuade journalists from following legitimate news stories by threatening them with libel suits,” Kirtley said. “It’s a technique used to intimidate and as a form of damage control.”
While Kirtley said it is possible to defame a party by merely asking a question, the burden of proof is very high and in such cases cease and desist letters are almost always scare tactics meant to intimidate reporters into halting inquiries.
“It is virtually impossible in the U.S. to get an injunction against a libelous publication, it is not at all unusual for potential plaintiffs to ask their lawyers to send threatening letters to discourage journalists from pursuing a story,” Kirtley said.
DuPage County-based trial attorney Patrick Walsh sent the first of the two cease and desist letters after Prairie State Wire reached out to legislators regarding rumors that Durkin earlier this year pursued a capital bill as part of a fundraising strategy.
A freelance reporter for Prairie State Wire sent emails to several state legislators asking them a series of questions regarding Durkin’s leadership, including the following question:
“What do you make of the accusation that Durkin tried to trade political clout for campaign funding?”
The inquiry was prompted due to previously unreported, anonymous rumors in the state Capitol that Durkin may have attempted to trade influence over a capital projects funding bill for campaign funds.
The second cease and desist letter was sent on Nov. 30 after a West Cook News freelance reporter asked Durkin’s communications staff to respond to allegations that Durkin had tried to set up a meeting between the owner of a proposed Cook County adult night club and the mayor of Broadview.
So, essentially what happened here is the two cease and desist letters allowed the paper to publish the rumors.
Chris @KennedyforIL joined @GovRauner in hammering @JBPritzker for his family trusts today on the @BennyJShow: "If there's a history of tax cheating, that's a disqualifier for public service."
We are celebrating one year of the Future Energy Jobs Act. As the Trump administration works to roll back environmental protections, Illinois is in a safer, stronger place thanks to the leadership of advocates who championed FEJA. We need to continue that leadership. #FEJAWeek
You're right. We must end this scourge. My bill requiring doctors to check the prescription monitoring program database before writing an opioid prescription is on your desk, ready for you to sign. https://t.co/eCXJW4XukI
The assessor’s office encourages property owners to file an appeal if they are dissatisfied with an assessment. In cases where officials did not change a property’s initial estimate from one reassessment to the next, the vast majority of the owners appealed, government records show.
Seventy-four percent of those owners won reductions from the assessor — only to see the values snap right back to the same number in the next reassessment.
“There is no rationale for having no change in these initial valuations,” said Richard Almy, former executive director of the International Association of Assessing Officers. “Especially if the assessor later agreed to a reduction; there’s no earthly reason for them to go back to the same value.”
The repetitive process feeds a property tax appeal industry that provides the bulk of Berrios’ campaign contributions. Inaccurate assessments also help drive business to political allies who are property tax attorneys, including Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the longest-serving state house speaker in U.S. history, and Alderman Edward Burke, the longtime chair of the Chicago City Council’s finance committee.
The office’s deputy assessor for communications, Tom Shaer, did not explain why thousands of first-pass values were identical over multiple reassessments under Berrios. The other findings from ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune are misleading, he said, and do not “do justice to the complexity” of Cook County’s assessment system.
“The study includes five years of the real estate crash,” Shaer wrote in an emailed response. “The crash played havoc with figures in certain industry measures used for this story, making them unreliable when evaluating the assessor’s work.”
A ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune analysis of appeals data from the Cook County assessor’s office found that the firm of Madigan & Getzendanner dominates the market for commercial and industrial appeals in Cook County. Between 2011 and 2016, the firm filed appeals on properties that were initially assessed at nearly $8.6 billion. That is nearly $1 billion more than the second-place firm, Crane and Norcross.
A ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune analysis of appeals data found that Berrios granted appeals for more than 34,000 commercial and industrial parcels in the 2012 Chicago reassessment and for about the same number again in 2015.
By contrast, former Assessor Houlihan approved only 17,596 appeals in 2009 — and that was the largest number since at least 2003.
Under Berrios, the analysis found, more than 70 percent of all commercial and industrial appeals filed with the assessor’s office resulted in reductions between 2011 and 2015, compared with 48 percent during the previous five-year period.
Every property tax assessment system requires an appeal process to ensure fairness and accuracy, and many jurisdictions across the country saw an uptick in appeals following the financial crisis, experts said. But the number of appeals in Cook County is extraordinarily high, far exceeding the total in New York, for example.
These appeals support an industry that provides more than half of Berrios’ campaign funds.
The most common test of accuracy is the coefficient of dispersion, or COD. It is, essentially, an error rate. For income-producing properties, the International Association of Assessing Officers sets the acceptable level of COD at 20. That means assessments are off by an average of 20 percent.
Under Berrios, the scores for commercial and industrial first-pass valuations have been as high as 133, ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune found. Though experts often allow complex jurisdictions like Cook County some leeway, they said those results are unacceptable.
The errors also have a bias. With lower-priced commercial and industrial properties, the assessor’s estimates tend to come in too high. At higher price points, assessments are often too low.
Known as regressivity, this pattern means the property tax system is unfair to people who own lower-value properties. Those taxpayers end up paying more, relative to the value of their property, than others do.
…Adding… ILGOP…
“The corruption from Joe Berrios and Mike Madigan is absolutely disgusting. For years, they have taken money from middle class families and small businesses to help line their own pockets, all the while propping up their political careers. If you want to know why Illinois has serious problems, look no further than Joe Berrios and Mike Madigan and their shameful practices of robbing hard-working Illinoisans to make themselves richer.” - Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Aaron DeGroot
…Adding… Press release…
Following is a statement from Fritz Kaegi, the progressive Democrat challenging incumbent Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios in the March 2018 primary election, in response to today’s Chicago Tribune/ProPublica investigative report on the corrupt practices of the current Assessor’s Office.
“The Chicago Tribune and ProPublica report again proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Assessor Joe Berrios has systematically and intentionally used his office to benefit the rich, powerful and politically connected, and has forced the Cook County residents who can least afford it to pay for the web of corruption in the form of massively inflated property tax bills.
“His brazen violation of the public trust is a disgrace, and the residents of Cook County are rightfully outraged.”
“As Assessor, I’ll get valuations right the first time. I’ll implement valuation models that are more uniform and that reflect current market conditions. I’ll be transparent in how valuations are reached. I’ll make available data and valuation standards to third parties, and hire a qualified, diverse workforce free from nepotism and favoritism. I will not accept donations from property tax appeals lawyers as a candidate or as assessor, and I am committed to the immediate separation of political influence from the assessment process.”
…Adding… Another press release…
Earlier this week, J.B. Pritzker was challenged on reporting relatively little income despite his $3.4 billion net worth. Given the Pritzker family history of avoiding taxes in offshore trusts, Pritzker’s multiple responses were vague at best.
Today, two of Pritzker’s chief backers, Speaker Mike Madigan and Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, are the subject of a Chicago Tribune story investigating the corrupt racket surrounding property tax assessments.
From the Tribune report:
“The repetitive process feeds a property tax appeal industry that provides the bulk of Berrios’ campaign contributions. Inaccurate assessments also help drive business to political allies who are property tax attorneys, including Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.”
Pritzker has been intimately involved with this racket, securing a $230,000 tax break from Berrios on his Gold Coast mansion after having the toilets disconnected from a neighboring property so that it would be declared uninhabitable.
Between Pritzker’s history of gaming the tax system, his undisclosed offshore interests, and now today’s revelations surrounding Berrios and Madigan, how can Illinoisans trust another corrupt insider?
While the average percentage of female candidates for 2018 State House and Senate Primary Elections is just 36%, female representation differs drastically depending on chamber and political party.
For example, female participation in Primary Election races for the Illinois House of Representatives will reach a new high in 2018, at 41% of all candidates. This is the highest percentage of female candidates to run for these seats in the last three election cycles.
State Senate races, however, have seen mixed results in terms of female candidates in Primary Elections. For this election cycle, only 30% of the candidates for these seats are women. This represents a six point decrease from 2016.
The percentage of women running in Democratic Primary Elections in 2018 is more than twice the percentage of women running in Republican Primary Elections for General Assembly offices. Female Democratic Primary Election candidates make up 52% of State House races, and 41% of State Senate races. Only 25% of State House and 16% of State Senate candidates in Republican Primary Elections are women.
This gender gap between parties has been fairly consistent in Illinois. Since 2012, there was only one year in which a higher percentage of women ran in Republican Primary Elections for State House or State Senate than in Democratic Primary Elections.
This trend may help explain the overall decline in 2018 Primary Election Senate seats contested by women. The Senate seats up for election in 2018 are disproportionately Republican-held, resulting in a higher number of Republicans running for those seats, and leaving fewer women running for the Senate overall.
The only increase came from female participation in the races for the House of Representatives and the race for lieutenant governor—where three women are competing for the spot.
Sarah Brune, Executive Director for the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, says women candidates often face more hurdles than their male counterparts. “There may be more people interested or activated to get involved in politics, but being a candidate for office is nothing easy or simple—it’s difficult,” she says, “and it requires a lot of time … money and resources.”
Brune says the rising costs of campaigns in Illinois might also prevent female candidates from running. “Our elections in Illinois are becoming more and more expensive, and in some ways that makes them more and more exclusionary,” she says.
Medical payments per workers’ compensation claim in Illinois grew 3.1 percent per year on average from 2012 through 2015, according to a recent study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI).
In all, medical payments per workers’ compensation claim were higher in Illinois than the median for the states included in the study.
The study, CompScope™ Medical Benchmarks for Illinois, 18th Edition, examined medical payments, prices, and utilization in Illinois compared with 17 other states.
“Recent public policy discussions in Illinois have focused on reducing workers’ compensation costs and making the state more attractive to businesses,” said Ramona Tanabe, WCRI’s executive vice president and counsel. “Among the areas of interest are causation of the injury, medical fee schedules, insurance premiums, and permanent partial disability benefits.”
The following are among the study’s other findings:
* Physical medicine was a key driver of higher-than-typical medical utilization, accounting for more visits per claim and services per visit in Illinois than in other states studied.
* Payments per claim for surgery (professional services) and facility payments to ambulatory surgery centers were higher in Illinois than in other study states.
* Prices paid for professional (nonhospital) services were lower than typical for evaluation and management (office visits), but higher for other services. These results were related to fee schedules.
WCRI studied medical payments, prices, and utilization in 18 states, including Illinois, looking at claim experience through 2016 on injuries that occurred mainly from 2010 to 2015. WCRI’s CompScope™ Medical Benchmarks studies compare payments from state to state and across time.
More info is here. The other states looked at were: Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
An Illinois official has canceled a $12 million contract she says should have been offered to the highest bidder by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration.
Chief Procurement Officer Ellen Daley decreed Tuesday that the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services should have bid the contract with McKinsey & Co.
Gov. Rauner on Wednesday blamed House Speaker Michael Madigan for the cancellation of a $12.5 million state contract with management consulting company McKinsey & Co. […]
Ironically, the cancellation was made possible by new guidelines for how the state buys and sells services that Rauner signed into law earlier this year. The new law was one of the few items on Rauner’s original “turnaround agenda” that lawmakers granted him, though he said Wednesday that it hadn’t gone far enough.
“Procurement in Illinois is broken, it has been broken and it is still broken,” Rauner said when asked to explain what went wrong with the McKinsey contract. “We did pass a modest procurement reform bill. Didn’t go nearly far enough. It probably fixed about a third or a quarter of the problem.”
Then he pivoted to Madigan, saying the speaker “has resisted because he controls a lot of the procurement people through his patronage operation. He likes the current procurement system. That’s how he gets some of his political power that we have to defeat.”
Asked if he thought the procurement officer who’d voided the contract was controlled by the speaker, Rauner said he thought Madigan had “heavy influence.”
Oh, please. The no-bid contract was supposed to be about “anticipation of litigation” for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. But as you can see if you click here, the CPO pointed out that lots of the actual contract had nothing to do with “anticipation of litigation.”
You can’t just blame Madigan for literally everything under the sun. I mean, yeah, he deserves blame for a lot, but this? C’mon, man. Daley has been CPO since July of 2015. Before that, she did procurement work for CMS and CPS.
The Illinois state comptroller has halted payment on a second contract that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration signed last year because it’s similar to one a state regulator invalidated.
Comptroller Susana Mendoza notified the Department of Healthcare and Family Services Wednesday that she would not pay a $12.5 million contract with consultant McKinsey & Co. for Medicaid-program assistance. […]
Mendoza’s letter adds that there will be no further payments on $12.9 million contract with McKinsey signed last year because of its similarities to the one canceled. Mendoza spokesman Abdon Pallasch said the state has paid $6 million on that deal.
A Republican lawmaker is challenging Gov. Bruce Rauner over a claim that the Democratic House speaker influenced the cancellation of a $12.5 million no-bid contract the administration signed.
Barrington Hills GOP Rep. David McSweeney says Republican Rauner must provide proof or apologize.
Democratic primary front-runner J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday fired back at accusations from Gov. Bruce Rauner that the candidate has avoided paying taxes on his $3 billion fortune by sheltering funds in offshore accounts.
“It’s laughable that Bruce Rauner is complaining about my taxes,” Pritzker said after a Democratic gubernatorial candidates’ forum at the historic Second Presbyterian Church on the South Side. “I released way more information than Bruce Rauner has, and it’s important to recognize that unlike Bruce Rauner, who, yeah, he paid taxes, but you know how he made his money? By cutting jobs. By buying companies and firing people.”
“So if he wants to have this battle, let’s have at it: Where I’m a job creator, he’s a job destroyer,” Pritzker said.
“I think there’s a massive tax avoidance scheme and you can just see by what we do know,” Rauner said Wednesday. “We know that Pritzker, in order to save some real estate taxes in Chicago, ripped toilets out of a building so he could claim that it’s worthless,” he said, referring to a Chicago Sun-Times investigation that found Pritzker saved $230,000 in property tax breaks last year by leaving his Gold Coast mansion in disrepair.
“So with that kind of behavior, you can only imagine what he would do to hide taxes or avoid taxes on hundreds of millions or maybe billions of dollars,” Rauner said. […]
“Any trusts for my benefit that are offshore, I have received no distributions from, and those trusts are only providing charitable contributions,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “That’s all that they do.”
* Meanwhile…
Today, the JB for Governor campaign released a new video, “Not In Charge,” highlighting Bruce Rauner’s shallow attempts to evade responsibility and excuse away his failures as governor.
After causing a 736-day budget crisis, failing to protect Illinois children by mismanaging DCFS, and sneaking a $13 million no-bid consulting contract into a secret Medicaid deal, Bruce Rauner has decided he’s actually “not in charge” of the state he was elected to lead.
“From manufacturing a 736-day budget crisis to gross neglect of DCFS and shirking procurement law with a secret Medicaid deal, this administration is facing fires left and right and Bruce Rauner is fanning the flames,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Illinoisans deserve answers from their failed governor and Rauner claiming he’s ‘not in charge’ while wiping his hands of responsibility is not going to cut it.”
