We must expand upon our efforts to get the word out about the Board of Review. I will not rest until all properties are assessed equally and fairly.

Fundraising is a necessary component of any political campaign. It is undoubtedly the least favorite activity of any person in public life. However, the cost of campaigning is high, media exposure is expensive, mailing charges constantly increase, and the ability to reach one’s constituency ever increasingly requires more sophisticated techniques than going “door to door” as we all wish we could as in days gone by. But, unless and until some form of public financing system is devised, each candidate (unless he or she is independently wealthy) must seek support from those persons who have the greatest concern for the effective, efficient, and fair management of a public agency charged with any service with which they come into continual daily contact. Those entities and persons most interested in the proper registration of titles and legal documents may take greater interest in the Recorder’s office. Lenders and holders of tax escrows, taxing bodies and local administrators, would look to the Treasurer for fair administration of that which concerns them the most. The same is true of the Assessor or the Clerk of the Circuit Court. Each office has a general constituency of the public at large and several other minor and ancillary constituencies which deal with that office on a daily basis. The Board of Review is no different.

Should the General Assembly see fit to create an ombudsman position, the Board of Review and all other interested governmental agencies should provide whatever data and information is helpful for the fulfillment of its role. Currently, the Board of Review has an on-going cooperative relationship with the Taxpayer’s Advocate of the Cook County Assessor, the City of Chicago Taxpayer Assistance Office, and the Office of the Mayor in their various assistance and Outreach programs.

All efforts to provide more information to the public, open the appeal process, and empower homeowners to appeal their assessments should be welcomed and encouraged.

Not at the Board of Review level. With over seven hundred taxing bodies and perhaps a thousand levies, notification to taxing districts and involvement at the Board of Review could only serve to create an enormous delay in the processing of appeals in this agency. The Cook County Board of Review has consistently been the highest volume tax appeal agency of its type in North America.

We review 150,000 to 250,000 parcels of real estate each year. The timely adjournment of the Board is a practical and financial necessity for taxing bodies. Taxes are the lifeblood of these districts. The inability to receive sorely needed funds as soon as possible could cripple some, bankrupt others, and force still more to seek other sources of credit or obtain anticipation warrants. In this way, taxing body involvement would be financially counter productive.

In addition, these agencies now have the ability to intervene in matters filed at the Illinois State Property Tax Appeal Board when the amount of assessment dollars in controversy exceeds 100,000. This is a proper role for them by which they can assist in the defense of the final assessment.

Finally, I support the comprehensive reform legislation that has been proposed by the Civic Federation of Chicago, currently pending in Springfield, which would address many the of the pressing legal and administrative issues that confront taxing bodies, including the “tax recapture” provisions so vital to their financial well-being.