* Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi on Twitter…

I’m opposed to Illinois House Bill 1356, which would require anyone who runs for the Board of Review to be a lawyer.

Our property tax system needs ongoing reform. But this bill would discourage reformers and real estate professionals from running for public office.

Right now, all three Cook County Board of Review commissioners are lawyers. We don’t need a law to make this possible. This bill would not apply to any other counties in Illinois. We should ask ourselves why this bill needs to be passed and who will benefit from it.

No other office in Cook County’s property tax system has a law like this.

Appeals from the Board of Review go to the Property Tax Appeals Board. There is no requirement to have a law degree to serve on the Property Tax Appeals Board.

This bill is also not the standard elsewhere in the country. In other large jurisdictions around the country, including New York City, Dallas, Seattle, Miami, D.C. and Los Angeles, there is no requirement that board members must be attorneys.

In many other property tax jurisdictions, real estate professionals outnumber lawyers on the boards that hear assessment appeals.

Finally, in the suburbs of Cook County, Township Assessors serve as ex-officio deputies of our office. This bill would prevent many of them from putting their knowledge to work at the Board of Review in service of taxpayers.

Township Assessors are some of the most knowledgeable people in the county when it comes to property assessments and appeals thanks to decades of skills and training. It’s a mistake to block them from running for this office if they aren’t a lawyer.

It’s a step backward if we don’t continue to allow real estate professionals and others from the private sector to serve in this capacity merely because they are not lawyers.

HB 1356 won’t serve the goal of a more fair and accurate property tax system. I urge @HouseDemsIL and @ilhousegop legislators to vote no.

I talked with some Cook County Democratic House members yesterday who were up in arms about the bill. Stay tuned.

…Adding… Press release…

The following is a statement from Commissioners of the Cook County Board of Review, Larry Rogers, Jr. and Michael Cabonargi on why they are championing HB1356, a good government bill in Springfield that would require Commissioners of the Cook County Board of Review to be licensed attorneys:

“This is a good government bill that will further professionalize the Board of Review. As a quasi-judicial body that sits as an appellate tribunal, the courts have established that filing a complaint with the Board is the practice of law. It is only appropriate that the Commissioners who lead the Board and all its work be licensed attorneys.

“As licensed attorneys, Commissioners are held to a higher ethical standard and subject to discipline by the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission, another safeguard that voters clearly value since they’ve now elected three licensed attorneys as Commissioners of the Board.

“While others have contended that this bill will close the door to real estate professionals becoming Commissioners, it’s fundamental that the Board is an independent legal review of the Assessor’s work, as explicitly defined in the Illinois Property Tax Code and relevant case law.

“Finally, the notion that licensed attorneys can’t be reformers is patently ridiculous. Please see the ACLU.”

…Adding… Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Tammy Wendt says she’s opposed to the bill.

…Adding… The bill was not called for a vote today, which is the Third Reading deadline.

..Adding… The Sun-Times…

Late on Friday, we heard there’s talk now of rewriting the bill, which did not meet a deadline for third readings but is far from dead. It can be revived. The rewrite would allow at least some non-lawyers with good assessment credentials to run for the board, which would beat the current bad proposal.

But better yet, there should be no such restrictions.

Not unless somebody can come up with better arguments than we’ve heard so far.

* WCIA’s Mark Maxwell…

On the same day a Minnesota jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd, a push to end qualified immunity stalled in the Illinois House.

Democrats narrowly reached a deal on police reform during a “lame duck” session in January. The original provision would have ended qualified immunity, the legal shield that often protects police officers from liability in civil courts; however, that controversial proposal was removed in order to calm the nerves of some legislators who were uncomfortable with the idea.

“I was someone who, internally and publicly, was very adamant that qualified immunity should stay in the criminal justice pillars,” Rep. Curtis Tarver said Thursday. “I think that to not have it in there is somewhat of a disservice to the overall purpose of the pillar.”

“Individuals who either don’t come in contact with law enforcement in the same way that a lot of Black and Brown individuals do, or don’t know anyone who’s had those same type of interactions, I think it could be difficult for them,” Tarver said.

* Daily Herald…

For police trying to crack a tough case, one tool in the arsenal is deception — letting suspects think there’s strong evidence against them, even when there’s none, in hopes of getting a confession.

But an effort in Springfield this month aims to ban that kind of trickery when it comes to juveniles.

Senate Bill 2122, which has been working its way through the upper house of the General Assembly this week, would prohibit police from lying to a juvenile suspect about evidence in a case, or making unauthorized statements about any leniency that might come with an admission of guilt.

* WCIA…

A growing number of state senators are advocating for a ranked choice voting system where voters could rank their candidates in order of preference. Advocates say it would result in electing politicians who appeal to a broader portion of the electorate.

Public polling data from Gallup and Pew Research have shown an increasing drift towards polarization and away from a moderate consensus in recent years. Several legislative districts in Illinois are very non-competitive, and often see candidates who wind up running unopposed in the general election. But in a crowded primary field, the most polarizing or controversial candidate can sometimes win the most attention, and coast through to an easy seat in the legislature without facing a challenge from across the aisle, or without winning wide support from the voters in their district.

“The problem that we see is that the primary becomes the entire election,” state Senator Scott Bennett (D-Champaign) said.

Reforming elections to include a ranked choice format would require county clerks to tabulate votes for each race and determine if any candidate had reached a 50% threshold. If no one reached a simple majority, the candidate with the least votes would be eliminated from contention, and the clerk would count up all of the second preferences of that candidate’s voters, adding those second alternative choices to the total vote counts for candidates still remaining in the field. The process would continue until one candidate had won at least half of the total votes.

Barring a miracle, the bill is dead for the year.

…Adding… Greg Hinz…

A bill that would add some interesting new strings to tax-increment financing projects has picked up a surprisingly big head of steam in Springfield and is nearing final approval by the General Assembly.

Under the measure, sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook at the request of Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, TIF developers would have to begin reporting annually to Mendoza how well their projects are doing in terms of creating jobs and new property tax revenue, or increment. That way, voters would know whether a project in line for TIF subsidies is as productive as developers promised.

* Other stuff…

* Senate passes state and local tax deduction bill

* Senate passes bill outlawing restraints on children in state custody