To the Editor:
The Cook County Board of Review has justly received a lot of unwelcome press about churning out biased and politically charged rulings, instead of issuing unbiased tax rulings based on facts brought in by taxpayers who aren't represented by campaign-contributing tax attorneys.
In 1997, local property taxpayers received a boost when the State Property Tax Appeal Board (PTAB) opened for business in Cook County. It leveled the playing field by sandwiching the Cook County Board of Review's administrative decisions between state oversight and initial review at the Assessor's Office. Chicagoans, used to rooting for two baseball teams, now had two appeal boards to take property tax complaints to, just like all the other 101 counties in Illinois.
The State Property Tax Appeal Board can overturn the Cook County Board of Review's rulings. But the Board of Review, which for 60 years has played the kingpin in the county's highly publicized political property tax appeals system, is not at all happy with being relegated to middleman.
So the three Cook County Board of Review elected commissioners have devised a way to get around state oversight. Whenever a taxpayer is unhappy with a Board of Review decision, he may file an appeal to the State. Once a case goes before the State a property tax decision can take more than 9 to 11 months to complete. That means the taxpayer must again appear before the Board of Review the next year, while the previous year's appeal is still pending before the State.
The Cook County Board of Review takes advantage and will automatically "no change" a case based on "a pending State Property Tax Appeal Board (PTAB) filing." Alternatively, the Board will tell the taxpayer or tax practitioner that "unless the taxpayer drops the State filing they will not make a current year ruling." If ruled against by the Board of Review the taxpayer ends up paying the high tax bill for the current year with no possibility of a timely adjustment.
The three Board of Review tax commissioners are going to level the playing field their way. It never ceases to amaze how the Cook County Board of Review's slithering power brokering always seems to defeat and cheat "under-represented" property taxpayers.
Sharon Stiggers
Rogers Park
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