Preckwinkle says she stands by Berrios
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is standing by County Assessor Joe Berrios even though the property tax assessment system the assessor oversees has been found to be discriminatory against lower income minority homeowners.
In terms of changes to the property tax assessment system, Preckwinkle on Friday said the problems with the assessment system are at least 40 years old, predating Berrios’ time in office, and try as she might, she can’t control the actions of other elected county officials.
“One of the challenges of governing Cook County is that we have 11 separately elected officials,” Preckwinkle told the Sun- Times editorial board during a meeting that was also attended by former Ald. Robert Fioretti ( 2nd), her challenger in the upcoming elections.
“While I’m responsible for the executive budget and we have some insight into what folks are doing as a result of the county board of commissioners mandated performance management system … ultimately they’re responsible formanaging their office.”
Fioretti said that shirking the blame won’t help fix a “corrupt, discriminatory property tax system.”
“It’s somebody else’s fault all the time,” Fioretti said.
An independent review by the Civic Consulting Alliance of the property tax assessment system in the county was released last Thursday, affirming an analysis conducted by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica that found the system transfers wealth from low income homeowners in largely minority areas to higher income homeowners.