The Board has just initiated a new computer program. It will greatly accelerate the processing of residential appeals and dramatically reduce the time to complete residential defense documentation to the Illinois State Property Tax Appeal Board (PTAB). My first initiative is to fine-tune and improve this new program as staff and analysts review its efficiency and suggest modifications and refinements. Next, I will spearhead an effort with my fellow Commissioners to tap into the ever-growing number of community-based groups to expand our Outreach Program. We want to be able to present tax appeal seminars and forums to every block-club, business, commercial, community, condominium association, fraternal, neighborhood, political, social, religious, and veterans group that wants to learn how the Board of Review can help its members obtain fair and equitable assessments. I want to continue our already highly successful efforts to empower the average homeowner to do what the largest and most valuable of all property owners and corporations do—recognize that the real estate tax bill is an important component in everyone’s economic and financial planning. Finally, I intend to encourage the Illinois General Assembly to revisit the various exemptions that are now in place, and administered by the Assessor’s Office, to determine where improvements can be made so that senior citizens and persons of fixed and moderate income are not hampered by artificially low income thresholds (such as the inclusion of occasional or sporadic income of college students and children working to support their education) that result in denying property tax relief to those who need it the most.

Technology is a tool. The wonders of technology can be a great asset to the efficiency of government. The Cook County Board of Review shares similarities with an appellate court in that the objective review of assessment appeals and supporting evidence which include complex financial statements, appraisals, and legal arguments make it an intellectual process. While we have made significant gains in technology, our decision making process, like a judge’s decision cannot be automated. The technology expenses we have incurred have been minimal (less than $25,000) for new computer applications that help organize and make data accessible. Our costs remain low because we have utilized professionals within the County and our agency. Unfortunately, many County officials see automation as a solution to every problem, but the reality is that technology can be super-adequate if not unnecessary. Regarding the Board of Review, we have fewer employees and the technology in place actually allows existing employees to keep pace with annual double-digit increases in appeals.

However, we should never lose sight of the fact that in an office such as the Board of Review, the most important work that we do—evaluating evidence, exercising judgment, determining equity and fairness—is an intellectual process. Computer assisted mass appraisal technology can only take us so far. A broad-based “macro” approach will produce adequate results much of the time. But, what the individual property owner deserves is that his or her particular, unique, or specific problem, crisis, or challenge will be addressed individually by a human being who brings personal knowledge, judgment, and experience to a fair “second look” on a “micro” basis. It is what the Tribune Building expected when we reviewed its appeal this past year and it is what the owner of a single family home, condominium, or cooperative expects.

The Board of Review has worked closely with the Budget Office and the President’s Office to pare down our appropriations to the bare essentials. We continue to struggle with the unfunded legislative mandate that resulted in creating the PTAB jurisdiction. We often labor under conditions in which we ask our employees to work seven days a week for long periods of time because we recognize that me must complete our work as expeditiously as possible so that second installment bills can issue on a timely basis. It was very discouraging to see the logjam in Springfield resulting in our exceptional work to close the 2006 session in record time (while processing the highest number of appeals in our 70 year history) being delayed as the tax bills issued so late. Yet, we will forge ahead doing our best to make sure that our part of this process functions in the best interests of the taxpayers of Cook County.

We will closely monitor our budget for cost savings. However, we must always remember that not one dime of the billions of dollars of tax revenue needed to fund county, municipal, and local government can be collected and distributed to taxing agencies until the Board of Review has completed its assessment reviews. This agency must have funding adequate to meet that challenge. I recognize that the County Board must consider new or expanding revenue sources. I will support those that are necessary and reasonable because, as Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed, “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.” I will also keep in mind the sage counsel of Mark Twain who cautioned: “We’ve got so much taxation. I don’t know of a single foreign product that enters this country untaxed except for answers to prayer.”

The Board of Review has not “granted an overwhelming share of valuation reductions to owners of commercial and other non-residential properties” in previous years. Any belief to the contrary is simply mistaken. Actually, the opposite is true. Since the 2000 real estate tax assessment year, approximately 76.97% of all parcels that received assessment relief from the Board of Review were in the residential class. The actual figures for this most recent seven (7) year period are: 523,141 parcels of residential property reduced and 156,476 parcels of non-residential property reduced. In other words, the number of residential properties receiving assessment changes outpaced commercial and other non-residential properties by a 3.34 to 1 margin. This chart illustrates each assessment year.

Year	Residential Parcels Changed	Non-Residential Parcels Changed	Ratio
2006	120,891	26,642	4.54/1.00
2005	42,976	21,472	2.00/1.00
2004	66,901	21,087	3.17/1.00
2003	94,721	27,161	3.49/1.00
2002	41,099	20,403	2.01/1.00
2001	75,091	18,049	4.16/1.00
2000	81,462	21,672	3.76/1.00

Any differential in actual tax dollars saved is simply the result of the huge differential that exists in the initial assessment and corresponding fair market value between the average home, condominium, cooperative, and small apartment building on the one hand, and, for example, a chemical plant, downtown office building, manufacturing complex, regional mall, shopping center or other complex industrial or commercial enterprise o n the other hand. In addition, the success rates for homeowners representing themselves before the Board of Review over the same period of time is nearly 65%, far superior to the 35-40% success ratio for attorneys representing the far more complex properties requiring sophisticated appraisal and financial analyses.

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.

Political contributions reflect confidence in the competent administration of the office—nothing more, nothing less. Each commissioner employs a staff of highly professional (and in many respects respected, renowned, and acknowledged expert) administrators, deputies, and analysts who make decisions free and independently of any considerations other than the evidence in the file, their personal knowledge of the real estate market, financial and other data available to the Board, and principles of fairness and equity mandated by the Illinois Property Tax Code. The Commissioners of the Board of Review are quasi-judicial officers sworn to apply the Property Tax Code fairly and “as justice shall require”. In their adjudicative capacity, they are similar to judges in the Circuit Court. All judges are legally able to accept campaign contributions from the attorneys who practice before them. Yet, all are expected to adjudicate fairly and equitably without regard to extrinsic influences when applying the law and rendering judgment—whether it be in a valuation, property, family, contract, or civil dispute or determine a sentence in a criminal case. The same is true in this office. Any contributions made by attorneys practicing before the Board of Review, have not and never will influence the decisions made by myself or my fellow commissioners.

All of our files are available for public inspection for at least five (5) years. We invite the media and any interested party to come and see any property-large or small from a bungalow to the John Hancock Building or the Sears Tower. You would be impressed with the level of analysis, the notes, the internal review process that determines the valuation of the most complex and expensive properties in the Cook County. This office employs the highest level of scrutiny and diligence to the most valuable properties consistent with the highest levels of appraisal and assessment theory. Each case is decided on its own merits, freely and independently from any consideration of campaign contributions generally by persons who have no knowledge at all of fundraising particulars.

The Board of Review has an extensive website (www.cookcountyboardofreview.com). It provides history, background, statistical information, charts and graphs; Outreach, filing, and other schedules; and detailed directions and instructions for homeowners and attorneys alike. Sections are devoted to each different type of property. Every form and rule is available online. Special opinions are published and extensive expositions on the law and the Property Tax Code are provided for the practicing bar so that new attorneys may be quickly acquainted with the practices and procedures of the Board of Review. We are very proud of our website and appreciate the many compliments that we have received from the public. Our website details the success of residential taxpayers’ filings that have dramatically increased in recent years.

The action of the Board on every single parcel that is appealed is available online, together with a short reason for the disposition of the case. Our website is in the final stages of having every relevant data field of concern searchable. Please note that our decisions have been available online for several years, but now searches will be available by appellant, address, attorney, property index number and complaint number. This process is completely transparent. Every result is available online and every file can be seen by anyone in person at the Board by simply making a request at the counter which details or entire decision making process. We encourage you to take a good look at the Board website. Many have and most agree that the information provided easily assists one in learning how to access this process effectively. Benjamin Franklin once said: “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Will Rogers retorted: “While that may be true, they don’t need to be related.” At the Board of Review our goal is to continue to administer the highest volume tax appeal system in North America fairly and effectively with a user-friendly process that provides a fair and equitable assessment quickly and efficiently, despite our ever increasing workload and diminishing county resources.

An indictment is merely an accusation. Our system of constitutional government demands that we recognize that any person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven otherwise. A public official has every right to a fair adjudication of his or her case. To be required to resign merely upon indictment undermines this fundamental principle of fairness.