There is a long analysis of the Cook County property tax system on its site. It has a lot details and outlines many of the flaws in the valuation methodology and appeals process.

I dealt with this back in 2002 in Cook County, and it was quite difficult to find help.

I learned the Kane County system after the housing crash. I appealed three years in a row and won each time with better results in successive years. At one point, I had my shitty Pulte home valued more than 30% below my neighbors because I had appealed. My tax bill was $3,000 less than comparbale properties in my neighborhood.

The lesson: use the appeal process. It can and does work.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

This seems to be more like a SHOUTOUT!! for yourself than the Chicago Tribune.

No not at all. The story is well researched. I am merely relating my real life experience with a flawed system.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

You didn't even link the article. Congratulations on saving/evading $3000 worth of taxes, nobody gives a shit.

Those fuckers always try and overcharge people who own Pulte homes .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Next time you should bring Chus to your appeal. I bet you'll hardly have to pay any tax at all.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Maybe one of the reasons the state is in such a difficult financial situation is because people that can afford it use and abuse the appeal process to save themselves some extra money and then complain about the financial mess that is going to cause them to flee the state?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Nah, it's the welfare queens and unions.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Pretty soon there'll be no tax at all!

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I feel that Denis, despite the 3K break, still pays a significant amount of property taxes. There was nothing illegal nor immoral about what he did. He simply went through the legal process and had his bill reduced after review. And I'm sure if the decision was made that there would have been no reduction, he would have complied and paid that amount.

Furthermore, why should Denis pay more than whatever is required of him? Why do you feel the need to punish those for their own personal success/accomplishments?

Not to pile on Dennis, but it does sound fishy that he got his reduced by 3k compared to his neighbors. I thought the appeals process was intended to rectify cases where one was paying too much compared to comparable homes.

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Denis is actively planning on how to flee the state in large part due to the financial situation they are in. He appealed three straight years even after they had given him a break. He has a house that is valued 30% lower than his neighbors even though I am quite certain that he knows his house would not sell or 30% less than them.

While it was not illegal what he did, and honestly everyone wants to pay less taxes, it is borderline immoral to complain about the state in the manner he did while also helping to contribute to the problem and bragging about how he was able to pull off such a reduction in a way that makes it pretty clear that he thinks he is underpaying for the true value of his house.

I don't have a problem with doing everything you can to reduce your tax burden. Just know that if you go to extreme lengths to do it you are helping cause the problems that you are complaining about.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't property taxes go to support local schools and municipalities? And the major cause for Illinois financial crisis is the pension problem what is funded by the state income/sales taxes? So Denis and thousands of people like Denis could be "good citizens", never appeal, overpay and we would still have the state budget problem? No? (maybe the day to day operational school budgets would be in better shape, so maybe they could cut the state portion contribution for Education and use those for the pension/debt)

There's absolutely nothing immoral about finding a legal way to pay less taxes to a state like Illinois that has proven over decades that it has no idea how to properly spend the taxes that the citizens do pay.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Trumpet!

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Well, appealing three years in a row is clearly abusing the system.

The big problem though is then complaining about the financial situation in the state while you actively doing anything legally possible to pay less in taxes.

Now, if Denis comes in and says that if he was selling his house today and he would list it for the value he fought for then I'll take it back. I'm highly suspicious that his house is worth 30% less than his neighbors.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

It is a Pulte.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

It's not abusing the system, it's using the system. Blame the dumbshit government workers that aren't smart enough to beat his appeal.

He laid it all out. They had already lowered it twice and it was already much lower than the comparable properties of his neighbors and yet he did it again. It also costs the government money to have to take in appeal after appeal and therefore more resources would have to be allocated to defending against him every single year.

The point still remains that it is disingenuous to complain about the financial state of where you live and actively talking about how you can flee it to avoid it and then also "using" the system to lower your burden past the point of what is fair based on his own admission while tying up government resources.

Be greedy. Just don't be shocked when the government struggles.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The property tax racket on commercial properties that is controlled by Ed Burke and little Mikey madigan, is a CLEAR abuse of the system.

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Also to my point above, I'm not sure if more property tax revenue is necessary going to solve the financial problems of the state related to pension obligations. Based on your previous positions on these issues, I'm sure you agree with my take, but you are doing your traditional contrarian angle to stir up trouble(in this case you are doing pretty good in that regard)

Here's the deal dman was talking about ... http://apps.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/cook-county-property-tax-divide/


Also, they did a bang-up job of getting Pritzker's name wrong on the front of the actual paper today ....

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I can only imagine the PM's flying back and forth with links to Dennis' address and what he paid in taxes

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

They spelled his name wrong, and used a picture of Jackie Gleason. Thats a bad day.

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Surprised they got his face to fit in on the traditional template size.

It won't solve it but these types of actions, when done by many people, have a lot of negative consequences especially when you factor in that he not only was paying less taxes but also using up government resources. Imagine if every person in Illinois appealed their taxes every single year. Would it cause a lot more of a problem?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

You know what Illinois could do a lot less of? These fucking fire station McMansions and TownHall McMansions for these piddly shit suburb towns.

Afford it?

It is a contingency fee based practice. Everyone can afford it.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I meant "afford it" as in can afford to pay the tax on their home that matches up with their actual property value.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!