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 A task force aimed at delivering property tax relief refused to
look into property tax abuses, including how state lawmakers, such as Illinois
House Speaker Mike Madigan, profit from the system.
On Aug. 29, the Property Tax Relief Task Force voted down a measure introduced
by state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst, aimed at studying abuses as well as
lawmakers’ conflicts of interest in the state’s property tax system.
Illinois’ property taxes average second highest in the nation. While residents
suffer under that burden, some enterprising lawmakers profit from it through
work at private law firms that specialize in property tax appeals.
“It is absurd to suggest we can’t have a subcommittee to target conflicts of
interest that both sides of the aisle know exist,” Mazzochi said in a statement
following the vote. “Today’s vote demonstrates that members of the majority are
insincere about real reform.”
Far from flying under the radar, Illinois officeholders engaged in this
self-dealing practice include those at the highest rungs of the Statehouse. A
joint 2017 investigation by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica found private law
firm Madigan & Getzendanner, founded by Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan in
1972, dominated the property tax appeals business from 2011 to 2016
During that period, Madigan’s firm appealed property taxes for nearly 4,300
parcels totaling $8.6 billion in assessed value. No other firm handled more
value in commercial and industrial properties during that time. On those
parcels, Madigan & Getzendanner won $1.7 billion in assessed value reductions
from the Cook County assessor, a 20% reduction overall.
Politically connected property owners benefit by paying lower property tax
bills, as does Madigan when his firm takes its cut. But the property tax levy
the county must collect is still the same, meaning the burden must fall onto
other commercial or industrial property taxpayers. Cook County’s flawed
assessment process is in no small part to blame for this system. The 2017
investigation also found that high value properties in the county were
systematically undervalued, therefore paying less in property taxes, while
lower-value properties were systematically overvalued, meaning they paid more.
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“Illinois residents already pay among the highest
property taxes in the nation. They don’t need an added corruption
tax,” Mazzochi said. “Whose interests are they really looking out
for?”
Until recently, powerful Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, 14th Ward, was a
partner at Klafter & Burke, No. 4 on the top 10 list of Cook County
law firms for commercial and industrial property tax appeals. Burke
resigned from the firm in August, shortly after the Chicago City
Council unanimously passed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s ethics reform
package that included tougher restrictions on council members
engaging in conflicts of interest. Lightfoot specifically called out
Burke, who after more than 50 years in office faces a 14-count
federal indictment claiming corruption related to his use of
aldermanic power. His wife was just picked by her peers as chief
justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.
After voting to send Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s progressive tax proposal
to voters on the November 2020 ballot, state lawmakers formed the
Property Tax Relief Task Force to study ways to cut property taxes
before asking Illinoisans to give them more power over income taxes.
The task force’s findings are due by the end of 2019
“If this task force wants to achieve meaningful reform, we must
address the problem of high-level political insiders who game the
system, whether at the state, county or local level,” Mazzochi said.
Illinois cannot deliver lasting tax relief without addressing the
root cause of state and local tax hikes: massive, unfunded pension
and health insurance liabilities for government workers. But state
leaders are fully capable of rooting out corruption – if they choose
to.
If Illinoisans can’t trust lawmakers to do that much, why should
they trust them with more power to increase state income tax rates
as would happen were Pritzker’s “fair tax” referendum to pass in
2020?
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