According to a report in the Chicago Tribune a recently released study pretty much what we all knew:
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios has been producing error-ridden property assessments that effectively punished poor homeowners while providing tax breaks to wealthy ones, according to a much-anticipated independent study of the county’s residential assessment practices.
The study, which reviewed assessments from 2014 to 2016, concluded that the county operates “a very regressive system” that causes “a wealth transfer from owners of lower-value homes to those of higher-value homes.”
County officials released the study Thursday to a handful of reporters before holding a small, closed-door briefing in the afternoon. The quiet release of the explosive report comes as Berrios, who is also chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, faces a serious, well-funded primary challenge.
The study, conducted by an assessment expert from Virginia for the Civic Consulting Alliance, corroborates findings from the Chicago Tribune’s investigation “The Tax Divide,” which exposed widespread errors and inequities in residential assessments under Berrios from 2011 through 2015. It also counters months of assertions from Berrios’ office that his assessment process is sound.
