Wednesday, May 30, 2007
News / Clout City How do you spell "relief"?
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 05.30.07 at 07:28 PM
It looks as though House Speaker Michael Madigan, Mayor Richard Daley, and State Senate President Emil Jones have reached a deal on a bill governing residential property taxes in Cook County.
Under Senate Bill 13, the maximum home owner's exemption for most residential property owners will rise from $20,000 to $30,000 this year. Next year it will fall to $24,000, and the year after that it will drop to $18,000. After that, the powers that be will have to reconvene to figure out what to do next.
The proposed bill, now being debated in the house, also offers a property tax break for low-income residents who have owned their houses for at least ten years. These people will have their equalized assessed value (don't ask) capped at 7 percent. This would help protect those in Woodlawn, Englewood, East Garfield Park, and other poor but gentrifying neighborhoods from getting property taxed into foreclosure or selling their homes.
If you want to read the bill, here's the link (PDF). As you can see, it's 143 pages of legislative gobbledygook that under the guise of offering home owners a break would make a complicated system even more complicated. With Madigan, Daley, and Jones behind it, the bill's almost certain to pass before the June 1 deadline. Governor Blagojevich has been privately telling legislators he might veto it because it doesn't go far enough. But after the stunning 107-0 defeat of his gross-receipts taxation plan, who knows if he'd have the guts?
Still, he may be right: the bill doesn't offer much of a break for middle-class home owners, and it doesn't help poor people in gentrifying neighborhoods who bought their property within the last ten years. And of course, the home owner's exemption does nothing for owners of commercial, industrial, or multi-unit rental properties.
Bottom line, whether it passes or not, most folks -- renters included -- are going to get hammered by August's property tax bill.
Comments (9)
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I hope every taxpayer takes their second installment of their property tax bill into the voting booth with them. They should be reminded of the extraordinary leadership this state has to offer - I only wish they would print out the debt owed by each taxpayer on that bill as well - I wonder how much clout would help these assholes if that were ever exposed?
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A shift in what we voters focus on is what will motivate the many who have abandoned their right to vote. Rather than the typical viewpoint, promoted by those who manipulate and exploit us, that elected officials are presumed to be doing an honest job, until proven otherwise, we should all take as a given that the opposite is true, that, in fact, each and every politician holding office, or hired by same, is unworthy of be re-elected / retained as a 'servant of the people', 'public employee' and/or 'citizen's representative', UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE. Thus, when the voter enters the voting booth, he/she will be focused on NOT re-electing ANY INCUMBENT, unless thoroughly convinced that a given incumbent has PROVEN to be WORTHY of keeping his/her job. The definition of said 'worthiness' is left to each individual voter to decide. With the help of voting strategies like the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT's mathematical formula for maximizing the votes cast for a single challenger, the incumbents will surely be lining up outside the unemployment office. With a shift in the voter's understanding, from the current, commonly held belief that a CHALLENGER has to prove worthiness to get my vote, to a belief that the INCUMBENT has to prove worthiness to get re-elected, combined with a vigorous, person-to-person campaign to encourage every citizen who is eligible to vote to REGISTER and, on election day, VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS, (making exceptions on a case by case basis, and, even then, sparingly), we, the people, can, in a surprisingly short period of time, rid ourselves of the proven political manipulating exploiters and create an environment where dishonest, scheming crooks will fear to tread. If having 45%+ of your hard-earned income plucked from your pockets every year isn't sufficient motivation to take the meager amount of time to register and vote on election day, then do it just for the sport of it.
Is there a website that details salary levels for all positions in the city and state? I seem to recall that the Sun-Times publish these figures once a year. The ridiculously high pay that the majority of City of Chicago workers receive needs to be highlighted for the massive fraud that it is. Let's be honest here, many City workers would be otherwise unemployable if it wasn't for clout. When workshy laborers are getting $70k salaries that's the reason property taxes are soaring. These charlatans and thieves are bleeding us dry right before our eyes yet what's the front page of the Sun-Times today? Look out for gulls. Yeah, hold the front page for that earth shattering story. but, then, what else can we expect from the paper that endorsed Todd Stroger?
Ben, Thank you for all the work you do to keep us informed on important issues such as property taxes and TIFs!
Apparently, there are those who are beginning to really worry that the concept of voting out all incumbents is starting to catch on, starting to ring true, as the only viable strategy the crooks we are told are our 'benevolent leaders' have to fear, the only means by which all of us disenfranchised citizens have, to have a chance of ridding ourselves of the decades-old dominance of these manipulators posing as public servants. To quote a certain, charming, tv personality, "There are none so blind as those who would not see". Change your perspectives, all ye abused and misused hard-working citizens, realize you have the power to fire your employees, (ie., all elected 'public servants'), understand that you are being hustled, [the evidence is there, just add up all the taxes you pay, every time you buy groceries, pay a utility bill, put gas in your car, buy any goods or services from any business, (the prices you pay include all the taxes the business has had to pay), open your property tax bill and feel your heart begin to race, wondering how much longer you'll be able to keep you home, etc.], determine you're 'mad as hell and you ain't gonna take it anymore', and focus on, well, you know what to focus on........
As long as so many people are so easily led to believe that it is those other damned representatives (I mean how many people voted for Jones or Madigan?) then the political blocks that be will continue to wreak havoc on all citizens. You are talking about a bill with 143 pages written in lawyerese and Latin and I can hardly wade through the funny pages. Did I hear this on the news?
So let's all do something smart, for a change. Let's ignore the mumbo-jumbo, the blockheads, (aka knuckleheads), and, come the next elections, vote ALL of them out of office. And, let's do so in as efficient and effective manner as is mathematically possible, by using this simple strategy: 1) Register to vote. (convince everyone you know to do the same) 2) Before election day arrives, make a list of the names of ALL incumbents up for re-election. 3) On election day, bring this list with you when you go to vote. 4) Do not vote for anyone on your list. (if you must make exceptions, do so sparingly) 5) If there is more than a single challenger, vote according to this formula: a) If the incumbent's name is listed FIRST, then vote for the challenger who is listed LAST. b) If the incumbent's name is NOT listed FIRST, then vote for the challenger who IS listed FIRST. This strategy will maximize the number of votes cast for the same challenger in any given contest, thus greatly increasing the chance that an incumbent will lose. With massive incumbent losses, the least that will be accomplished will be that voters will have experienced proof that their vote does count, that entrenched incumbents can be fired, and fired en mass, and that what can happen once, can happen again. And again. And again, until such time as those elected give the voters enough good reasons, by their actions in office, to allow them to keep their jobs. We all know how quickly we can be fired from our jobs, should we do them badly, why shouldn't our 'public servants' be subject to the same reality? Spread the word.
