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Yesterday Mayor Daley held a press conference to announce that help was on the way for the city's poor beleaguered residential property tax payers.
He was going to have the Cook County Board of Review extend the deadline for filing tax assessment appeals. You now have until March 31 to appeal.
Pardon me for being unappreciative, but: thanks for nothing, Mr. Mayor.
I know these things get complicated, so I'll be brief. The most important element in determining how much we pay in property taxes is the levy -- that is, the amount of property tax dollars Mayor Daley wants to spend. Our levy keeps rising because Daley keeps spending more and more money every year thanks to TIFs, the mayor's favorite tax boondoggle.
The mayor either doesn't realize this or doesn't want to admit it. So when the public cries for tax relief, he proposes to tinker with the assessment -- the one part of the taxpaying process he should have nothing to do with. As faithful readers ought to know by now, your property tax bill is basically determined by multiplying the amount your property is valued at (i.e., its assessment) by the tax rate. If the board of review lowers your assessment, will you pay less in taxes? Absolutely. But the overall amount of property taxes that Mayor Daley's government -- and, let's face it, he controls all aspects of local government -- will remain the same. So the burden of payment will shift from those who know how to play the tax-appeals game to those who don't.
Who generally applies for assessment cuts? Commercial property owners who have the savvy to hire sharp, clout-heavy lawyers who know enough to contribute campaign dollars to the three members of the board of review.
So the mayor's great reform proposal means that the sharpies will get a break and everyone else -- the usual collection of suckers and saps -- will pick up the slack. In the name of cutting our taxes, the mayor will be raising them. And all so he can win some headlines in his ongoing PR campaign to convince the public that he truly cares about taxing them out of their homes.
Please, Mr. Mayor -- no more property tax relief. The taxpayers can't afford it.
What is so infuriating is we know that Daley had a HUGE hand in the recent County tax increase...and now he wants to portray himself as an advocate for the over-taxed?
GIVE ME A BREAK!
When is a viable candidate going to emerge to destroy this guy???
"The mayor either doesn't realize this or doesn't want to admit it."
This sentence has GOT to be the result of the Reader's lawyers, 'cause it's unimaginable, and totally unbelievable, to think, for a fraction of a fraction of a second that Daley doesn't realize what he's doing.
Also, if numerous individual property taxpayers were to have their individual assessments lowered, even that wouldn't necessarily lower their individual property tax bill(s), since, if enough citizens were to succeed in having their property's assessed value reduced, it would only mean that the multiplier would have to increase, in order to raise the total revenue amount, which remains the same, courtesy of the many crooks infesting our city and country governments, Daley being the most visible and his TIF abuses being the most egregious.
This motherless fuck of a piece of shit has a limitless supply of lies, deceptions and bullshit mumbo-jumbo at his disposal, with a different flavor of shit to shovel for every occasion.
The residents of this city and county must really love the taste of shit, to so dependably pay for the privilege of swallowing so much for so long.
Puppets on a string, the voters choose to be.
How come Brendan O'Connor getting a job in the MWRD AFTER HE GAVE MONEY TO TERRY O'BRIEN!!!????
Is the State's Attorney giving them a pass?
Does the US Attorney know?
Why did Terry lying O'Brien give back $39,000 in donations.
HDO is connected to:
DRUG DEALING
GANGS
HIRED TRUCKS
PATRONAGE SCANDALS
Acevedo has been arrested
Munoz is name in plea agreements and indictments and lawyer said is cooperating
The State's Attorneys should be going after HDO, Tony Munoz, and Eddie Acevedo--NOT TAKING MONEY FROM THEM AND APPEARING IN PUBLIC WITH THEM.
$39,000 RETURNED | Sewage agency chief gave back donations he received from 50 employees
March 6, 2008
Terrence O'Brien's campaign fund sprung a bit of a leak last year.
O'Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, gave back a total of $39,520 Oct. 5 in contributions he'd gotten from 50 donors.
ยป Click to enlarge image
Commissioner Terrence J. O'Brien on the floor of the mainstream pumping station.
(Joseph P. Meier/STNG file)
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The problem: The money had come from employees of his agency, which treats Cook County's sewage.
"Those were mostly employees or related to employees, and the campaign made a decision to return those," says O'Brien's lawyer, Jim Nally. "After reviewing the law in the area, we thought it was a better course."
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Act says "no officer or employee shall solicit, orally or by letter, or give or receive, or be in any manner concerned in soliciting or giving or receiving any assessment, subscription or contribution from any member of the classified civil service for any party or political purpose whatever."
Which would seem to say O'Brien was barred from soliciting agency employees for campaign cash.
A former Water Reclamation District employee complained to the Cook County state's attorney's office, according to a source familiar with the situation, and prosecutors looked into the matter but didn't file criminal charges.
Still, O'Brien's fund returned the money "out of an abundance of caution," the source says.
Nally says the returned contributions were originally received "over several months or even a couple of years."
Current and former employees of the agency who got their contributions returned say O'Brien raised the money through an annual fund-raiser he holds at a restaurant.
"He'd send me a complimentary ticket to his fund-raiser," says Frank Kody, who retired from the Water Reclamation District in December.
Kody says that, even though there was no charge for the ticket, he contributed $1,000 anyway. "I thought I was being nice," he says.
Frank Deignan, a current employee of the agency, says he was "totally taken aback" when O'Brien returned the $200 he'd contributed.
"They said there was some sort of conflict of interest," says Deignan.
Also among those who got their money back was Water Reclamation District finance chairman Gloria Majewski. She'd given O'Brien $1,500.
O'Brien was first elected to the agency's board in 1988. He's next up for re-election in 2012.
Eric Herman
Getting their money back
Terrence J. O'Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, has given back campaign contributions from 51 employees of the sewage agency he solicited over the past several years. The 16 biggest refunds O'Brien made:
George and Melody Smothers, Lemont -- $3,300
Louis Kollias, Orland Park -- $2,000
Brian Newhouse, Chicago -- $2,000
Casimir Wytaniec, Park Ridge -- $1,950
Thomas Durkin, Oak Lawn -- $1,750
Timothy O'Leary, Chicago -- $1,725
John Poulos, Des Plaines -- $1,600
Brendan O'Conner, Chicago -- $1,550
Gloria Majewski, Orland Park, MWRD board member -- $1,500
Robert Regan, Oak lawn -- $1,500
Daniel Mikso, Oak Lawn -- $1,300
James Sheehy, Chicago -- $1,250
Robert Hultgren, Chicago -- $1,200
Gerald Borucki, Western Springs -- $1,000
Frank Kody, Tinley Park -- $1,000
Harry "Bus'' Yourell, Oak Lawn, ex-MWRD board member -- $1,000
Compare his resume and grades compared to others?
How many Hispanics in the MWRDGC law department?
Real estate deals?
employment deals?
failed civil service board tests
nepotism?
and is looking into it and the Black Box and Hired Trucks
The ghost payrolling by Majewski and her lovers and husbands cannot be indicted because of the statute of limitations.
But there is an alderman who likes to drink who knew both guys who is talking a lot.
"Still, O'Brien's fund returned the money 'out of an abundance of caution,' the source says.
Nally says the returned contributions were originally received 'over several months or even a couple of years.'"
So, this means that every person who's committed a criminal act(s) need only either:
a) not get caught until after the statute of limitations has expired concerning the specific criminal act(s)
b) return the proceeds gained by any specific criminal act
c) commit a criminal act(s) while under the cover of county or city employment
d) commit a criminal act while under the cover of contracting with the county or city
e) commit a criminal act under the protection of those employed and in authority over the powers of the Crook County State's Attorney's office
f) any and/or all of the above
to escape and/or avoid indictment and prosecution for committing said criminal act(s)?
Does this mean that anyone dealing drugs who meets any of the above criteria can simply return to their customers the monies received for said drugs and then be 'not guilty' of committing a criminal act(s)?
Does this mean that anyone meeting any or all of the above criteria can steal and, upon returning the proceeds of their theft, no longer be guilty of having stolen in the first place?
Does this mean that anyone meeting any or all of the above criteria can extort, blackmail, embezzle, commit fraud(s) of various kinds, shoplift, burglarize, etc., and, just by returning the proceeds illegally gained by said criminal act(s), no longer be considered as having committed them?
That's a sweet deal.
Question: Where do I sign up?
Answer: At your local city or county Democratic Party of Criminals recruiting center.
Uncle Richie is looking for a few bad men.
The Worst, the Shameless, the Minions.
The Machine covered all the bases in this Primary contest, splitting the black vote and hedging their bet with three whites and one latina.
All that effort to ensure the Cook County State's Attorney's office remains totally impotent concerning criminal activities committed by city and county officials and their minions.
Wouldn't it be sad, if all that effort was for naught, if Tony Peraica can actually get elected the next Cook County State's Attorney?
"I was again happy to see a Chicago Clout regular Terrence J. O'Brien. I was also pleased to meet his classy wife Julie. I think these two make a happy couple. The young man next to the President of the MWRD might be one of their kids. I was looking for Commissioner Frank Avila and his wife Sherry, but he was out of town and she was at a different Irish event. Thanks for the nice picture President O'Brien. I might add the agency is rather well run. Learn more about Mr. O'Brien, click here http://www.terrencejobrienmwrd.com/LinkedFiles/Bio... Photo by Patrick McDonough"
'Oh, Wait.......This is a conspiracy of the Machine Politicians.'