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Chicago Tribune: Heads up, Chicago property owners. It’s reassessment year, and it won’t be pretty
Get ready, Chicago homeowners, businesses and apartment dwellers. You’re next in Cook County’s property reassessment process — a property valuation system that the new Cook County assessor, Fritz Kaegi, is trying to balance out. It won’t be pretty.
Chicago property owners this year will begin to receive new valuations of their homes and businesses that will be part of their property tax formula. Commercial buildings could be hit hard. The reassessment cycle could mean higher property tax bills, and higher rents passed along, in a state with already too-high property taxes.
Chicago Tribune: How Michael Madigan’s departure accelerates a shift in Chicago politics from old-school machine to new-era progressives
Long before he became a congressman, federal judge or presidential adviser, a young Abner Mikva walked into the 8th Ward committeeman’s storefront office to volunteer for the 1948 election.
When Mikva had no political connections to speak of, the ward heeler responded with a now-infamous line that sums up the clout and cronyism of the city’s vaunted Democratic machine: “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.”
The Center Square: More hearings expected about Illinois' unemployment office plagued with problems
While state officials say employers won’t have to cover unemployment benefits paid to fraudsters, taxpayers will still be on the hook for unrecovered funds.
More hearings are expected to further delve into the myriad problems at the Illinois Department of Employment Security. A hearing Thursday touched the surface.
As of December, IDES said it’s paid out $19 billion to cover the costs of unemployment since government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions forced businesses to close, reduce hours or limit customers. The department said it’s stopped 1.5 million fraudulent claims to date, but didn’t put a value on how much money in fraudulent claims has been paid out.