Mayor Daley says new assessments are unfair and corrupt:
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/daley.property.taxes.2.836406.html
Mayor Richard M. Daley says a "very scary situation" in the economy has proven that homeowners need a tax break, and the city wants to provide it.
As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, homeowners know the value of housing is down, and wonder why they are paying such high property taxes. In response, Mayor Daley called on the Cook County assessor's office to provide relief for taxpayers.
"I think people are frightened about their investments, they're frightened about their homes and everything else," Mayor Daley said. "This is a very scary situation."
Current tax bills are based on assessments conducted two and a half years ago, when home values were much higher. Even still, Mayor Daley says appraisals of some homes in Englewood are fraudulent.
"How can they appraise a home, three blocks from here, or four blocks from here, for $300,000, $400,000?" Mayor Daley said.
The mayor blames the higher taxes on outdated and inflated assessments, and legislators lowering the exemption from $40,000 last year to $26,000 this year. He's calling on the General Assembly to increase the homeowners' exemption and make it permanent.
"The Assessor's Office welcomes the mayor's support for having an annual adjustment factor for assessments," said Eric Herman of the Cook County Assessor's Office.
Homeowners all over the city are receiving tax bills that reflect 2006 appraisals. At that time, the economy was growing, and according to Mayor Daley, there was rampant fraud in the appraisal system.
"Once you do a fraudulent appraisal on one block, they're all the same then. See, they go into the most recent appraisal —“ all the mortgage people, the appraisers, the lawyers, everybody that has been well taken care of —“ they got all the money," Daley said, "and what's left is this whole appraisal system, which is truly unfair, and I think it's corrupt as well."
Posted Friday Oct 10, 2008 14:37
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