“My parents came [to the United States] in 1969. I grew up in the Chicago area. “When Cynthia and I got engaged, we started home searching. We wanted a place ready to go. “I knew nothing about [the cost of] homeownership until I started to home search. I was looking in Oak Lawn, Oak Forest,…
“My folks all came from small towns, Livingston and Benld. I was born in Belleville, raised in Collinsville. “Some people can pack up and leave as soon as they graduate from high school or college and never look back. Me and my wife were never like that. “This is our life. Our whole life, we’ve…
“I first came here in 1989. I moved for four years out to North Carolina and then came back. I was excited about moving back because my grandbaby was being born. “I thought I’d just retire here. Then all the taxes came. “We’re going to move out by the spring. “My land taxes doubled from…
“I head over to Indiana at least three times a month to get groceries, cigarettes, gas, anything that is taxed less. Part of it is that I’m trying to watch out for my pocketbook, the other part is to just not give any more of my tax dollars to Illinois. “Politicians only care about themselves….
“Our property taxes went from $12,500 to $19,200 over the course of six years on this Norwood Park commercial property. And we’ve been losing money every year charging lower rent to accommodate for the property taxes. “We fight it every year, but $19,000 is the best we’ll get here. Can’t do it anymore, it’s not…
By Joe Kaiser Jason Spyres is one of Illinois’ brightest. This summer, he will be headed to California to attend Stanford University on a full-ride engineering scholarship. Like any student getting into a university of that caliber, it was a grind to get to this point. “I’m lucky that I got in,” Spyres said. “It’s…
“Looking at it from a small business perspective we are just trying to serve the community like the other businesses in the city of Chicago. And at the same time, we’re trying to make sure that we’re abiding by all the rules and regulations put forth by the city. “We would love to see the…