Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Monday, Jun 28, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

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*** UPDATED x1 *** You gotta be kidding me

Friday, Jun 25, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Tim Novak, Lauren FitzPatrick and Caroline Hurley at the Sun-Times…

The 3,300-square-foot condo in Water Tower Place isn’t on the ocean, like owners Barbara Kaplan Israel and Martin Israel’s place in Florida, but it does have jaw-dropping views of Lake Michigan.

They want to sell. Asking price: $3.3 million.

They’ve had the place for decades. Their property tax bill last year for their condo on the Magnificent Mile? Just $2,502.

The Israels — who pay $19,000 a year in property taxes on their oceanfront condo in Boca Raton, Florida — pay so little in Cook County property taxes thanks to a law the Illinois Legislature passed three decades ago establishing what’s called the “senior citizens assessment freeze homestead exemption” and problems with how the Cook County assessor’s office manages the program.

Legislators portrayed the senior freezes as a way to protect homeowners over 65 years old, many on fixed incomes, from being hit with big tax increases if, thanks to gentrification and booming development, home values and property taxes in their neighborhoods shot up, creating financial hardships for older residents.

In Cook County, though, officials admit the program is riddled with errors. And oversight is so lax that they don’t even try to verify that applicants meet the household income threshold of no more than $65,000 a year.

That’s according to a Chicago Sun-Times investigation that found:

Go read the rest. Sheesh.

*** UPDATE *** Tribune…

Legislation headed to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk could set the stage for a wave of annual real estate tax increases across Illinois by giving local taxing bodies the ability to make up for refunds they’ve issued due to erroneous property over-assessments by shifting those costs onto the rest of their taxpayers.

In Cook County alone, refunds issued by local taxing bodies during the 2020 calendar year in categories covered by the legislation total $176.3 million — an amount roughly in line with annual refunds issued since 2015, based on statistics obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the county treasurer’s office. […]

The concept of the legislation is an attempt to hold local taxing districts harmless for drawing up their annual budgets, only to the see the amount of revenue they have available to spend through property taxes reduced by having to issue refunds due to erroneous over-assessments.

But Ralia and other critics contend it allows taxing districts to collect money that never truly existed because the assessments were erroneous and shift the burden onto the taxing district’s other taxpayers to make up for assessment mistakes.

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*** UPDATED x2 *** Unclear on the concept

Friday, Jun 25, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 97.9 FM…

St. Rep. Adam Niemerg of Dieterich has been meeting with his local school districts who have been catching some flak from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Board of Education because the districts want to make mask-wearing optional in the coming school year.

Niemerg said if you can go to the ballgame and not have to wear a mask, why can’t school children do the same in the classroom this fall?

Hmm. Could it have something to do with the fact that ballgames are outdoors and classes are held indoors in often poorly ventilated classrooms? Also, too, the vaccine hasn’t yet been approved for young kids.

* Earlier…

Niemerg said he was also introducing a bill to end the mask requirements in schools.

“We need to be an example to our children that we no longer need to fear each other,” he said.

Says the guy who sponsored or co-sponsored 18 pro-gun bills this past spring. He also signed on to this resolution…

Urges the United States Congress and President Joe Biden to pass the “Fauci’s Incompetence Requires Early Dismissal” or “FIRED” Act to relieve Dr. Fauci of his role.

* Related…

* Dr. Fauci says children ‘more likely’ to get COVID Delta variant

* New Mexico pushing child vaccinations as Delta variant begins to spread in the state

* Expert shares how we can protect children from coronavirus Delta variant: Given that there’s now a more transmissible and potentially more dangerous variant circulating in the country, the focus has turned to young people 12 and older, who are less likely to get vaccinated, and to children younger than that, who aren’t eligible yet for the COVID-19 vaccines. Experts like former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb are now warning that “we’re going to see that children and schools do become more of a focal point of spread” as schools reopen later this summer.

* COVID May Cause Long-Term Brain Loss, Study Says

*** UPDATE 1 *** Just 38 percent of Schuyler County is vaccinated…

A COVID-19 outbreak at an Illinois summer camp has infected dozens of people, health officials say.

The outbreak stemming from The Crossing Camp in Rushville has led to over 50 people being infected with the virus, the Pike County Health Department said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the health department in nearby Schuyler County said the coronavirus exposure happened during a camp from June 13 to 17. The church camp was designated for students from 8th to 12th grade, according to the camp website.

*** UPDATE 2 *** IDPH…

In mid-June, more than 50 teens and adult staff at a summer youth camp in central Illinois tested positive for COVID-19. At least one person was hospitalized. Although all campers and staff were eligible for vaccination, IDPH is aware of only a handful of campers and staff receiving the vaccine. The camp was not checking vaccination status and masking was not required while indoors. All campers and staff went home and were asked to be tested and told to quarantine. As more transmissible and dangerous COVID-19 variants spread, including the Delta variant, largely among people who have not been vaccinated, IDPH continues to encourage all residents 12 years and older to be vaccinated.