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Chicago Tribune: Editorial: With Cook County property tax, the absurdity continues, but attorneys always win
In the wacky, crazy, corrupt, counterintuitive world that is the collection of property taxes in Cook County, this should have been a rare, good-news week.
On Tuesday, beleaguered, cash-strapped taxpayers actually got to find out how much they were being expected to pay (a lot) in the second installment of the year’s property tax bills. And, hallelujah!, those bills, delayed by months (we all were told) due to a variety of computer-aided snafus, even arrived in enough time for taxpayers to deduct those big checks from their 2022 federal taxes. At least to the limited amount now allowed.
Better Government Association: Analysis: Cost of Chicago Legal Judgments and Settlements
Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for an average $93.6 million a year for legal judgments and settlements against the city.
A Better Government Association policy team analysis found that after years of chronic underfunding by the Emanuel and Daley administrations, budgeting for legal judgments and settlements became more realistic under Mayor Lori Lightfoot. But flawed record-keeping and non-department-specific budgeting still limit the city’s ability to analyze and counter the underlying causes of lawsuits.
Chicago Sun-Times: Cook County lowers adoption filing fee
Cook County has lowered it adoption fee to address a declining rate of adoption filings.
Chicago Tribune: Republican concedes race for Cook County Board, leaving the party with one seat after narrow defeat in Northwest Side, suburban district
Despite their bid to reverse it, local Republicans fell further into “super-duper” minority status in Cook County government Monday as the sole GOP candidate still in the running to serve on the County Board admitted defeat. His loss flips a seat that had been red for a quarter century to blue, and leaves the head of the Cook County GOP as the sole Republican on the board.
It was the latest in a sweep of Republican losses across Illinois following last week’s general election, leaving the state party reeling. Similar bids to take back countywide offices from Democrats also failed Tuesday.