Hammered on property taxes, Tunney runs for political cover
Under fire for property tax increases made worse by skyrocketing assessments, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) is running for political cover.
Monday, Tunney pushed a resolution through the City Council’s Finance Committee urging the state legislature and Cook County Board to provide homeowners with some relief.
His resolution asks state lawmakers to: allow online applications for the senior citizens exemption — every five years, instead of annually; raise the income threshold from $65,000 to $75,000; allow one-time exemptions for a certain amount of capital gains; raise the household income threshold for the Longtime Occupant Homeowner Exemption.
The County Board was urged to require the Cook County assessor to issue annual reports related to assessment trends and distribution of the tax burden.
A group bankrolled by the Cubs owners — the billionaire Ricketts family
— has been sending out mailers hammering Tunney for skyrocketing property taxes in Lake View.
The resolution was Tunney’s way to fight back; he faces three challengers in next year’s election.
Tunney in 2015 voted for the largest property tax increase in Chicago history — $838 million — for police and fire pensions and school construction. Tunney said the triennial reassessment has triggered average increases of over 30 percent, generating “huge concern about the livability and viability of continuing to be in our neighborhood.”
Marie Poppy has lived in Lake View since 1990. She said she was socked with an increase of 72 percent. One homeowner she knows had an assessment increase of 92 percent.
“I already now have lost two of my friends. One has moved to Minneapolis, the other one to Tennessee. The unpredictable increases are pushing residents out of their homes and out of the city.”
Dennis Culloton, a spokesman for the Ricketts family, wouldn’t comment on the resolution, saying only that the Cubs’ owners are “watching democracy play out in the 44th Ward.”