* Daily Herald…
Gov. Bruce Rauner has issued an amendatory veto effectively killing legislation that would have let Lake County voters decide how their chief assessment officer is hired.
The job is an appointed post and has been held by Marty Paulson since 2003. Paulson’s office coordinates property tax assessment activity in Lake County, oversees the work of township assessors and mails annual assessment notices to property owners, among other duties.
Paulson has feuded with some township assessors who say he ignored their reassessments. Paulson and the county have been sued twice by those assessors, but both cases were dismissed.
This spring, the General Assembly passed legislation that would have put a question on the Nov. 6 ballot asking if it should be an elected position.
* The county board chairman has been a staunch foe of the legislation and engineered a board resolution calling on Gov. Rauner to AV the bill to make it apply to all counties with appointed assessors. Rauner complied…
While this legislation promotes the accountability of property tax officials to the taxpayers they serve, it furthers a concerning practice of local carve-outs in state law. What is beneficial to Lake County taxpayers and voters may also be beneficial to citizens across the state, who should get the same opportunity to determine whether an elected county assessor would better serve their communities.
The referendum would’ve been held this November had he signed it into law.
* Rep. Sam Yingling is the bill’s sponsor…
Today, Governor Rauner issued an amendatory veto of SB2544, killing the bill and ignoring thousands of Lake County taxpayers who called him and signed petitions urging him to sign it.
If signed, the bill would have put a question on the ballot in November to let the people decide whether the position of Lake County Chief Assessment Officer, the Lake County Assessor, should be popularly elected by the people. That position is currently appointed by the Chairman of the County Board.
“Lake County homeowners pay some of the highest property taxes in the country, but today Governor Rauner denied voters the power to hold the Lake County Assessor accountable for decisions that impact how much they pay,” continued Yingling. “Appointments can be the ultimate prize in political gamesmanship, and with the Lake County property tax system in crisis, it’s important that the person whose decisions impact how much my constituents pay is accountable to my constituents —not the politically connected. With his Amendatory Veto, Governer Rauner denied the taxpayers of Lake County their right to vote this November on whether to elect the Lake County Assessor.”
“It was wrong when Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor led efforts to get the Lake County Board to thwart our grassroots campaign to increase accountability by opposing this bill in July, and it’s wrong now for Governor Rauner to side with him over us,” said Denise Neufeldt, a homeowner in Carillon North in Grayslake. “All we want is the right to vote to elect the assessor in November. Why is Governor Rauner against increasing accountability in our property tax system?”
Yingling’s measure had bi-partisan super-majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly and was supported by good government advocates, Illinois REALTORS, republicans and democrats on the Lake County Board, the Lake County Township Assessors, and thousands of Lake County residents who made phone calls, signed petitions, and testified at local hearings on the bill.
“The people of Lake County are sick and tired of Governor Rauner ignoring our local concerns,” concluded Yingling. “He ignored our historic flooding last summer, he vetoed additional education funding for our schools, and now he’s denying our right to vote to make our property tax system accountable to us in November. This is just the latest example of Bruce Rauner being an out-of-touch, failed governor who cares more about politics than the people of Lake County.”
- Grand Avenue - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 10:56 am:
Soon to be former County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor
- Langhorne - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:10 am:
Consistency is not rauners strong suit.
===While this legislation promotes the accountability of property tax officials to the taxpayers they serve, it furthers a concerning practice of local carve-outs in state law.===
Accountability—rauner wants voter approval of local tax increases, but not the assessor?
Carve-outs—rauner wants local “empowerment” zones willy nilly, all over the place. And those arent carve-outs?
This is what you get when you start w the conclusion you want, and work your way back from there. BTIA.
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:11 am:
Guess that “local control” stuff only goes so far. This one might impact GovJunk property taxes and we can’t let that fall into local control.
Shucks
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:12 am:
So the governor repeatedly telling us that Madigan is a corrupted tax assessment lawyer has turned away a GOP tinged county’s attempt to empower themselves regarding tax assessments?
Dude, you’ll be lucky to break 25% in November.
The guy’s just so sad.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:25 am:
Odd that Rauner would side with the lame-duck board chair under investigation for shenanigans with taxpayer dough.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:32 am:
The usual singling out of Lake County for special legislation by Democrats. Been going on for years, always with bills sponsored by local Democrats in Springfield who shriek to high heavens when that bill is vetoed, or in several cases struck down by courts as being unconstitutional. Of course, when the bills are stricken as unconstitutional, the Democrats immediately cease their shrieking.
My impression of this amendatory veto is that Rauner gave every single county in Illinois the opportunity to do the same thing . . . thus killing the bill.
Thanks for protecting our local Lake County property taxes by repeatedly adding additional layers of government funded by . . . increasing property taxes. Thanks Mr. Yingling and others.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:35 am:
Remember when Lake county was a reliable source of votes for republican governors? I do. Seems Rauner is willing to write off the entire area. Agree with Vman, at the rate Rauner is going he’ll be lucky to break 25%.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:36 am:
Louis, why would an elected,rather than appointed, assessor be unconstitutional. How would it add “layers of government?”
- Perrid - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:42 am:
Why is expanding this to all counties a bad thing? Would adding a question to the ballot of the other counties be too much work or something?
Evidently it “kills the bill” but no one is saying why. How many county assessors are even appointed?
- Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:43 am:
@wordslinger, reread my comments. It would not be in this instance but for the singling out of a single county for special legislation (other than Cook or Chicago) has been used to dropkick other nonsense (a separate Lake County Board of Elections for instance) in the past as being unconstitutional.
So Rauner extended this concept to allow every single county in Illinois to add such referendums, not just Lake County. Suddenly Rep. Yingling shrieks that electing assessors in every county is killing the bill? Yeah, right.
We are used to such shenanigans in Lake County by Democrats.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:50 am:
===Why is expanding this to all counties a bad thing?===
Some legislators from other counties may not like the idea. It gets a foot in the door for further action. This is a process that the governor has actively pushed aside for almost 4 years. Little wins aren’t worth it.
- Perrid - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:14 pm:
Thanks Rich.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:41 pm:
The Governor is all about letting the locals decide. He gets the change, albeit targeted, to let that happen and he vetoes it. This is just another example of the Governor not taking something he supports because he didn’t get everything he wanted. The man simply cannot take a win.
- Streamwood Retiree - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 1:29 pm:
As a Cook County homeowner for the last thirty years, I’m surprised that all counties don’t have elected assessors. I lived in Lake County 45 years ago but don’t recall much politically.
If an elected assessor is bad (and I don’t care for the current assessor), why doesn’t Cook have an appointed assessor? I could see some really low population county not having one, but Lake County has substantial population.
I think Rauner is a jerk. (I hope that didn’t violate the ban on gratuitous insults)
- DuPage Bard - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 2:50 pm:
Perrid- It “kills the bill” because it was supposed to be a referendum on the ballot Nov 6. To override or accept the veto the GA has to be in session. They aren’t in session until after the election thereby killing the bill.
- Perrid - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 4:08 pm:
DuPage Bard, ok that makes sense.
- M - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 5:22 pm:
“This is just the latest example of Bruce Rauner being an out-of-touch, failed governor who cares more about politics than the people of Lake County.””
Its not just Lake county!
- M - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 5:25 pm:
If I lived in Lake County, I would not vote for Rauner.
- DMAC57 - Wednesday, Aug 29, 18 @ 6:57 am:
Not a fan of the Guv in any fashion, but he did the right thing with this veto. The legislation was nonsense and only meant to play on the emotions at election time. We have 18 elected Assessors in Lake County (township), elected by 10% of the electorate. 18 ways of doing business that leads to havoc.
The Chief County Assessor is supposed to have oversight by the Board, so lets hold the County Board accountable if the some electorate thinks the Chief County Assessor has gone awry. What, the electorate hold officials accountable. I fear they dont know how given some of the people we elect in Lake County to state and local government.
- Jayne Burn - Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 2:06 pm:
Lake County like all 101 counties outside of Cook all have elected township assessors who set market values. Those values can be appeal before the twp. assessors or the taxpayer can go to their County Board of Review BR (Members of the BR are appointed for 100 counties & require qualifications) Just 2 counties have elected BR St Clair County BR is elected and has no qualifications. Cook County BR is elected and after one yr. must take a class.
Lake County BR allowed taxpayers to file their tax appeals before them without having to hire a lawyer for decades. In 2011 hordes of Chgo tax lawyers advocated and got the Lake County BR chairman Martin Paulson to change that –and become just like Cook County BR– forcing taxpayers to hire lawyers to file their tax appeals. Now they want an elected Lake County BR –learn anything about Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios?
If Lake Taxpayers want to elect the Board of Review they can place that question on the ballot by a binding referendum as it is a structural change in government. They have to circulate petitions and collect enough to get it on the next election and withstand a challenge same as Term Limits for Mayor TakeChargeChicago.com
http://www.il-ccao.org/assessment-regulations-and-qualifications/board-of-review-qualifications/