* Rep. Mike Zalewski (D-Riverside) said the quiet part out loud in an interview with the Daily Line…

“We need to show that we’re doing something about property taxes during the spring session”

The article’s focus was Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s revised legislation…

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and his allies in the Illinois House of Representatives are poised to introduce a revised version of a bill he says is designed to improve how the county’s millions of commercial properties are assessed.

However, many of the same interest groups that blocked the bill last year are gearing up for another fight.

SB1379, which Kaegi has dubbed the Data Modernization Bill, would require owners of large commercial properties to submit their rental income and expense data to their county assessor’s office. Assessors would use that information to determine the taxable values of properties.

The bill would automatically apply to Cook County, but governing boards of the state’s other 101 counties could opt in.

Biz groups are in high dudgeon about Kaegi…

The head of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce warned that shifting Cook County’s property tax burden to businesses could shock the entire state of Illinois into an economic downturn.

* Meanwhile, you gotta be kidding me…

Is Mayor Lori Lightfoot quietly plotting an end-run around the City Council to deliver on her signature campaign promise to end aldermanic prerogative over zoning?

Or is a DuPage County Republican state lawmaker acting on her own to target the unwritten rule at the heart of the racketeering indictment against Ald. Edward Burke (14th) and virtually every other aldermanic indictment over the years?

That’s the question Chicago aldermen have been asking themselves after learning about the Chicago-only bill introduced this week by state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Westmont).

We talked about this bill the other day. Some Chicago aldermen need to take off their tinfoil hats.

By the way, this is what Rep. Mazzochi told the Daily Line…

Mazzochi said she was moved to act by the 14-count indictment of Ald. Ed Burke (14), which alleges that Burke repeatedly — and brazenly — used his powerful position at City Hall to force those doing business with the city to hire his private law firm. Burke has pleaded not guilty.

The sort of “shady back room deals” Burke is accused of must be stopped, Mazzochi said.

And this is what she revealed to the Sun-Times…

She and her husband own rental properties. They did development and renovation work in Chicago. They know first-hand the chilling effect of giving local aldermen iron-fisted control over zoning in their wards.

“There’s a lot of people that, when the allegations came out about Alderman Burke, were not surprised because this sort of thing happens behind the scenes all the time. I’ve actually divested most of my interests in the city of Chicago because of that toxic climate,” she said.

* OK, let’s move on to legislation that might actually see the light of day…

The sponsor of a measure that would give local governments the ability to tack on a municipal gas tax on top of state and federal gas taxes said it was designed to level the playing field inside the state’s boundaries, but a group representing convenience stores said it would make Illinois even more of an outlier compared to neighboring states.

Senate Bill 2978, filed earlier this month, would open up the ability for all municipal governments to tack on an extra 3 percent gas tax to the state and federal gas tax.

Bill sponsor, state Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said the bill wasn’t going to move anytime soon, but it could come up before the end of the legislative session. He said it would open up local control of local gas taxes.

“If people in those towns are complaining about side streets for instances not being repaired, not being repaved, potholes not being fixed, this would be a way for the local municipalities to address that,” Cunningham said.