Chicago Republicans

Please find the enclosed property, now occupied by Cook County Board of Review (BOR) Commissioner Joseph Berrios and family; also a 2010 candidate for Cook County Assessor:

Where I would like to add this parcel to my BOR appeal docket as a "comparable" property; not because such property is truly comparable, but because I want to have explicitly answered one simple question:

“On what planet, does a half-million dollar (value) multi-unit, two full-story, property on the coveted north side of Chicago pay less in property taxes than does a homeowner in Cicero, with a bungalow purchased for $230,000; now worth $150,000 at most...? In almost every possible characteristic, including but not limited to, location, value, square footage, material, etc., his home is far better than mine, yet why the hell are my taxes so damn high? “

More importantly, why is the Cook County Assessor James Houlihan legally allowed to raise my taxes 45%, in 2008, and deny me any form of advanced notification, adjudication, or due process; all according to his interpretation of 35 ILCS 200/15-175 and 35 ILCS 200/15-176 which he and his staff, for the record, have repeatedly refused to discuss with me in any further detail? And why will the Board of Review not adjudicate my exemption, as 35 ILCS 200/16-70 and 35 ILCS 200/16-130 clearly provides that it can?  

I refuse to blame ONLY local government spending when all the major decisions are taking place at the Cook County Assessor’s Office, Cook County Treasurer’s Office, and at the General Assembly in Springfield; where the County blames the General Assembly, and members of the General Assembly refuse to return my calls. Including, of course, my elected officials:

1.     12^TH District Senator Martin Sandoval:

2.     24^TH District (House) Representative Lisa Hernandez:

Who are supposed to serve me: the constituent, citizen, and taxpayer. Instead, they voted for HB0664 in the 95^TH General Assembly, while not actually incurring the blunt of its consequences; and my taxes skyrocketed while they actually benefited. Then they have had the audacity to avoid me as I have repeatedly sought legislation.

This is what corruption looks like, and why people often say that Illinois is the most abusive state. And while the General Assembly shovels onto us the burden of high taxes to pay back their special interest and public union contributors, the legislators, conveniently, are not carrying their full load; the full irony that I’m paying taxes to provide pension benefits for them that I will not ever get myself, while they pile on even more taxes on me to spare themselves, not wasted. This has to stop; and I want the same benefits that the politicians are getting.

Which is why I’m asking you to take the following actions:

·         I want the above properties added to my petition presented, by you, before the Board of Review (BOR).

·         I want you to request from the BOR the same amount of leniency that they are currently giving themselves, friends, and fellow politicians. We’ll call it the “friends and family” exemption, because that’s exactly what it is.

·         I want you to ask the BOR to extend these benefits to every Cicero and/or 16^TH District resident homeowner.

And, finally, I want you to arrange a meeting with me and Cook County Assessor James Houlihan so he can look me in the eye and tell me why he jacked-up my taxes in 2008.

Cordially,  

David N. Jenkins