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TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE

TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Barbara Garner bought a tiny home in west suburban Melrose Park for $75,000 in 2010. A few months earlier, the Cook County assessor’s office valued it at $164,640.

An unfair burden
County property tax system harmed poorer residents, helped the rich
By Jason Grotto | Chicago Tribune THE SERIES The problem lies with the fundamentally flawed way the
Sunday Cook County county assessor’s office values property.
Chicago has long been a city divided by race and class, a property taxes harmed The valuations are a crucial factor when it comes to
metropolis with starkly different crime rates, economic the poor, helped the rich calculating property tax bills, a burden that for many
realities and educational opportunities depending on where Monday The appeals determines whether they can afford to stay in their homes.
you live. process makes assess- Done well, these estimates should be fair, transparent and stand
But there’s another division in Chicago and Cook County, ments even less fair up to scrutiny.
one that for years has gone unexamined even as it pits rich Tuesday An era of errors But that’s not how it works in Cook County, where Assessor
against poor. may have expensive con- Joseph Berrios has resisted reforms and ignored industry
An unprecedented analysis by the Tribune reveals that for sequences for taxpayers standards while his office churned out inaccurate values. The
years the county’s property tax system created an unequal result is a staggering pattern of inequality.
burden on residents, handing huge financial breaks to Read the whole series at From North Lawndale and Little Village to Calumet City and
homeowners who are well-off while punishing those who have chicagotribune.com/
the least, particularly people living in minority communities. taxdivide Turn to Property tax, Page 12

Tick threat high this summer, experts warn ANALYSIS

By James Steinbauer
and Leonor Vivanco
Chicago Tribune
When Keith Clay became in-
terested in ticks almost 17 years
ago, the lone star tick couldn’t be
found in southern Indiana.
Now, he says, it is the most
common.
Clay, a professor of biology at
Indiana University in Blooming-
ton, studies the mini-ecosystems
of bacteria, viruses and other
microorganisms that ticks house.
He and his team of students have
collected ticks in the forests an
hour south of Indianapolis since
2000, and each year since they
have noticed that the small
arachnid with a white, starlike
spot on its posterior has ap-
peared more frequently and
moved farther north.
The lone star and other ticks
are joining a list of bloodsucking
bugs that scientists say are ex-
panding their ranges and their
potential to spread disease. The
blacklegged tick, which carries
Lyme disease and the deadly
Powassan virus, has already tak-
en up residence in Illinois,
spreading south from Wisconsin.
Turn to Ticks, Page 9
BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Blacklegged ticks — shown as
larva, bottom, adult, left, and
adult after feeding — migrated
from Wisconsin into Illinois.
In duel about truth, advantage
lies with Comey over Trump
By Philip Bump
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — There are
two steps involved in President
Donald Trump’s defense of the
allegations leveled against him by
former FBI Director James
Comey.
The first is to make the question
a he-said, he-said contest between
the two men. The second is to
make himself seem more believ-
able.
If that seems familiar, it should.
It was precisely the strategy
Trump and his team used during
the 2016 campaign, fighting hard
against Hillary Clinton until she
was viewed as unfavorably as he
was and then squeaking past her
in just enough places to win the
presidency.
Here’s how this works in the
case of Comey.
During a news conference with
Turn to Truth, Page 26

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12 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, June 11, 2017 B
TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE
An unfair burden
Widowed and living alone in a four-bedroom home near Melrose Park, Barbara Garner in 2010 downsized to this much smaller house. But her property tax bill was about the same.
Property tax, from Page 1
Melrose Park, residents in work-
ing-class neighborhoods were
more likely to receive property tax
bills that assumed their homes
were worth more than their true
market value, the Tribune found.
Meanwhile, many living in the
county’s wealthier and mostly
white communities — including
Winnetka, Glencoe, Lakeview and
the Gold Coast — caught a break
because property taxes weren’t
based on the full value of their
homes.
As a result, people living in
poorer areas tended to pay more
in taxes as a percentage of their
home’s value than residents in
more affluent communities.
Known as the effective tax rate,
the percentage should be roughly
the same for everyone living in a
single taxing district.
But the Tribune’s analysis
shows the rates became skewed in
favor of wealthier residents.
The assessor’s office says it does
not check its own work for
fairness and accuracy, as is stand-
ard practice for assessors around
the world.
So the Tribune stepped in,
compiling and analyzing more
than 100 million property tax
records from the years 2003
through 2015, along with thou-
sands of pages of documents, then
vetting the findings with top
experts in the field. The process
took more than a year.
The conclusion: Residential as-
sessments have been so far off the
mark for so many years that the
credibility of the entire property
tax system is in doubt.
Berrios, who took office in
December 2010, declined to be
interviewed for this series. But
through an interview in Septem-
ber with top aide Thomas Jaco-
netty, and then in written state-
ments in 2017, the office defended
its assessments as fair and accu-
rate and said it strongly disagreed
with the Tribune’s findings.
“The (Cook County assessor’s
office) believes the valuation and
uniformity opinions formed by
the Chicago Tribune are not
sufficiently credible,” the office
said in a statement.
The latest powerful politician
to hold his office, Berrios is
chairman of the Cook County
Democratic Party and controls
three active campaign funds
where he’s raised more than $5
million since 2009, more than half
of which came from property tax
attorneys and the businesses asso-
ciated with them. Among his
strongest allies: Illinois House
Speaker Michael Madigan and
Ald. Edward Burke, both property
tax lawyers who benefit from the
county’s broken system.
It isn’t as if Berrios is unaware
of the problems with his assess-
ments. In July 2015, he boasted in
a news release that his office had
adopted new, state-of-the-art
computer models designed to
improve accuracy and address
persistent inequalities.
But the Tribune’s examination
of the computer programs offi-
cials say they used to value
residential properties in 2015
shows Berrios continued to use
the old, faulty model.
“My understanding at the time
of the press release was that they
were going to replace the old
model with the new one,” said
Robert Weissbourd, who led the
team that created the new model
and was quoted in the release.
“The new model was technically,
by every measure, more accurate,
fair and transparent.
“If they are not taking advan-
tage of it, that would be deeply
troubling. There’s millions of dol-
lars at stake for the county’s
poorest residents.”
In Chicago’s West Garfield Park
neighborhood, Gail Bates knew
there was something wrong with
the county’s valuation practices as
soon as she opened her first
mailing from the assessor.
A caseworker for the Illinois
Department of Children and Fam-
ily Services, Bates purchased her
two-flat in 2009 for $119,000.
According to state law and county
ordinance, her property tax bill
should be based on her home’s
market value.
Yet that same year, the assessor
valued the property at $210,500,
and the office continued to overes-
timate its value for years after-
ward.
Bates didn’t appeal in 2009 or in
2012, the year of the next triennial
Garner’s home, built just after World War II, is less than 800 square feet. “I blew a gasket,” Garner said of her
tax bill. “I moved here to save money but instead I was paying the same amount in taxes.”
reassessment. Finally, in 2015 she
filed an appeal and won a 10
percent reduction.
“Why does it have to be so
unfair?” asked Bates. “We are the
people who can least afford it.”
In an interview last fall, Jaco-
netty, the county’s deputy assessor
for valuation and appeals, dis-
missed the need for updated
assessment models, arguing that
homeowners would be relieved to
know that the assessor is not
solely relying on the “purity of
mathematics.”
“Would they be as concerned
about their assessments being
based purely on math and driven
by equations? Or would they feel
better knowing there was a hu-
man being involved?” he asked.
That philosophy helps explain
why the county appears to rely so
heavily on “hand checks,” a proc-
ess in which property values are
adjusted manually on a case-by-
case basis.
Because the office doesn’t keep
statistics on hand checks, it’s
impossible to tell exactly how
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
many are done each year. When
the Tribune made an open-re-
cords request for documents de-
tailing how the practice works,
Berrios refused. The newspaper
has filed suit, seeking to obtain the
records through a court order.
The assessor’s office also does
not use computer-based mapping
programs that are a common
feature in modern assessment
systems and relies on an outdated
mainframe computer from the
early 1990s as it calculates esti-
mated values for 1.8 million prop-
erties in the county. Officials say
the county is updating its comput-
er system, but the process is
expected to take years.
Jaconetty stressed that resi-
dents who believe their property
is overvalued have the option to
appeal — and are encouraged to do
so.
But when the Tribune part-
nered with the University of
Chicago’s Harris School of Public
Policy to study appeals filed by
homeowners, the paper found
that the process makes an already
unequal system even less fair.
That’s because owners of high-
priced homes are far more likely
to appeal.
In defending the office, Jaco-
netty also noted that under
Berrios the county has sent out
property tax bills on time, which
hadn’t been the case for about 35
years. Because of this, officials say,
local governments saved millions
in borrowing costs for loans used
to tide them over until property
taxes come in.
But that timeliness came as
accuracy suffered.
Since 2009, the Tribune found,
Cook County’s assessments have
been so inaccurate they violated
standards set by the International
Association of Assessing Officers,
a professional organization that
develops guidelines used around
the world.
Valuing property in the wake of
the 2008 housing market collapse
was no simple task. But even in a
time of unprecedented upheaval,
the office says it did not run the
studies that assessors carry out to
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios controls three active campaign funds and has raised more than $5
million since 2009. More than half of it came from property tax attorneys and related businesses.
measure the accuracy and fairness
of their valuations.
“That’s insane,” said Peter
Davis, an assessing expert who
helped write the standards for the
International Association of As-
sessing Officers. “There’s no justi-
fication for not doing the studies.
That’s how you find problems.”
Deeply unfair
Widowed and living alone in a
four-bedroom home near Melrose
Park, Barbara Garner decided in
2010 to downsize.
She swapped her 2,000-square-
foot, two-story house — one of the
biggest in the area — for a nearby
single-story home built just after
World War II. Her new place is
smaller than 800 square feet.
So Garner was shocked when
she learned her new tax bill would
be nearly the same amount she’d
been paying for her old home,
more than $4,000 a year.
“I blew a gasket,” she said. “I
moved here to save money but
instead I was paying the same
amount in taxes.”
Garner’s tax bill was higher
than she expected because the
assessor overshot the price she
paid for the house by a factor of
two, the Tribune found. The
county had valued the home at
$164,640, just months before she
bought it for $75,000.
In Chicago’s Lakeview neigh-
borhood, meanwhile, the assessor
estimated the value of a 2,600-
square-foot house at $787,000 in
2012. That is just over half the
price a couple paid for it the same
year. Five years later, the valuation
is still 30 percent short of the $1.4
million sale price, even though
home values in the neighborhood
have soared.
Accurately estimating a proper-
ty’s market value is crucial be-
cause that is the first number that
goes into calculating property
taxes. If the estimate is faulty, the
fairness of the entire bill is thrown
into doubt.
To determine if assessments are
fair and accurate, assessors usu-
ally conduct sales ratio studies,
Tax burden heavier in poorer areas
Lower-priced homes
likely to be overvalued
The Tribune compared actual home sales
prices to the market values estimated by the
Cook County assessor’s office. The data cover
valuations from 2009 through 2015; Assessor
Joseph Berrios took office in December 2010.
OVERVALUED AND
UNDERVALUED
CENSUS TRACTS
Homes were:
Overvalued
by 10% or more
Overvalued
by less than 10%
Equal
valuation
Undervalued
by less than 10%
Undervalued
by 10% or more
Standards of accuracy, fairness not met
No system of property valuation produces exact results, so
experts use statistical tests to ensure that errors fall
within reasonable limits. Since 2009, Cook County’s
assessments have violated professional standards.
Coefficient of dispersion
The COD is a measure of
errors. A score of 15 basically
means the average error rate
was 15 percent.
40
30
20
10
Acceptable range
2003 2007 2011 2015
SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Cook County treasurer’s office, Illinois Department of Revenue, U.S. Census Bureau, Tribune analysis
ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
which compare actual sale prices
to their estimates. Cook County
says it doesn’t do the studies,
relying instead on research con-
ducted by the Illinois Department
of Revenue. But that research
comes out years after property
taxes are calculated and doesn’t
provide granular details on indi-
vidual neighborhoods.
The Tribune checked the asses-
sor’s accuracy over 13 years, in-
cluding at the neighborhood level,
by obtaining data on more than 1.4
million sales since 2003 and
matching them to assessment
records. Three assessment ex-
perts, including a former execu-
tive director of the International
Association of Assessing Officers,
vetted the Tribune’s analysis.
In its written statement, the
assessor’s office contended that
any privately conducted sales ra-
tio study is invalid because it
would never be admitted into a
court of law. In fact, such studies
have been accepted as evidence in
court cases around the country for
decades.
B Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, June 11, 2017
Price-related differential
The PRD measures
regressivity, the overvaluing
of low-priced homes and
undervaluing of costly ones.
1.25
1.0
Acceptable range
0.75
2003 2007 2011 2015
No mass appraisal ever pro-
duces exact results, so assessing
experts use statistical tests to
ensure that any errors fall within
reasonable limits.
The most common measure of
accuracy is called the coefficient
of dispersion, or COD. Assess-
ment experts say the highest
acceptable score is 15, which
basically means the average error
rate was 15 percent.
Prior to 2009, Cook County had
scores of around 15, the Tribune’s
analysis found. Since then, howev-
er, the scores have been as high as
31 in some townships, meaning
assessments were deeply unfair.
In Chicago, scores for the city’s
eight townships ranged from 16 to
31 for the 2012 reassessment. The
scores for the 2010 reassessment
in the north suburbs and the 2011
reassessment in the south and
west suburbs also exceeded the
standard of 15, sometimes by a
wide margin.
“If you get CODs over 20, or
certainly 30, it’s professionally
unacceptable,” said Richard Almy,
a former executive director of the
International Association of As-
sessing Officers. “It calls into
question the credibility of the
whole tax system.”
A high score means the system
is riddled with errors, but it
doesn’t say whether the errors are
skewed in a way that favors
certain groups. That’s where two
other tests — price-related differ-
ential and price-related bias —
come in.
The tests can help determine
whether the property tax system
suffers from regressivity: the over-
valuing of low-priced homes and
undervaluing of high-priced ones.
The Tribune found regressivity
problems exploded in Cook
County beginning in 2009, when
regressivity scores exceeded in-
dustry standards for most of
Chicago’s townships. In 2012, the
scores got even worse.
Comparing assessed values to
actual sales also reveals inequities
in the system. In the township
covering Chicago’s Northwest
Side, for example, the 2012 medi-
an assessment level was 10 per-
cent higher than what is called for
in county ordinances. The town-
ship that includes Lincoln Park,
13
Income rises; tax rates decline
These rates represent the percentage of
homes’ value that owners pay toward the
two taxing districts that cover all of Cook
County. Overall tax rates are much higher.
Effective tax rate:
0.16% 0.137%
Income:
$115,558
Effective tax rate
0.15%
Effective tax rate:
0.14%
0.1634%
Income:
$37,294
0.13%
$21.0k $43.0k $61.6k $116k
Median household income
RYAN MARX AND KYLE BENTLE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
the Gold Coast and downtown,
meanwhile, was nearly 20 percent
lower than it should have been.
Areas of the city where gentrifi-
cation had taken hold saw values
come in low, while homes just
outside those neighborhoods
were more likely to be overvalued.
Small apartment buildings in the
trendy eastern parts of Humboldt
Park and Logan Square were likely
to catch a break while many on the
west sides of the neighborhoods
got hammered.
Bungalows in the far south
suburbs of Chicago Heights, Lyn-
wood and Ford Heights were far
more likely to be overvalued while
luxury homes in Wilmette and
Winnetka were undervalued,
some by as much as half.
The 2015 reassessment for Chi-
cago was slightly better than in
2012, as regressivity for the entire
city fell to acceptable levels. But
the scores still failed to meet
professional standards in many
townships, the Tribune found,
and the county as a whole contin-
ued to suffer from severe regres-
sivity.
Moreover, if condominiums are
excluded from the analysis, error
rates and regressivity violated
standards across the board in
2015. The assessor’s office histori-
cally has been better at valuing
condos, the Tribune found. One
former official said in a court
deposition that the value of a
condo was estimated by tracking
sales in the same building — a
different method than the flawed
computer models used for single-
family homes and small apart-
ment buildings.
The pattern of regressivity in
Cook County meant that the tax
burden — the fixed amount of
money that the county is going to
collect — was being distributed
inequitably as well.
By comparing sale prices to
property tax bills, the Tribune and
the University of Chicago calcu-
lated the effective tax rate for
Chicago and found it differed
widely by neighborhood between
2009 and 2015, even though the
rate should have been roughly the
same for everyone.
For example, the average effec-
Turn to Property tax, Next Page
14 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, June 11, 2017 B
TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE
An unfair burden
Property tax, from Previous Page
tive tax rate in North Lawndale
and Little Village was around 2
percent — about two times higher
than in wealthier areas like the
Gold Coast and Lincoln Park.
The fix that wasn’t
The 2009 reassessment for the
city of Chicago was so problemat-
ic that it was clear something
needed to be done.
The assessor’s office had over-
valued some lower-priced homes
by as much as 150 percent, the
Tribune’s analysis shows. And
complaints were pouring in, espe-
cially from neighborhoods where
property values had collapsed in
the aftermath of the housing
market crash.
James Houlihan, the assessor at
the time, turned to outsiders for
some help.
The MacArthur Foundation
agreed to fund a grant for another
nonprofit group, LISC, to examine
how foreclosures had affected
housing prices. RW Ventures, a
consulting firm, was tapped by the
nonprofit to oversee the project,
and Weissbourd, president of the
firm, drafted U. of C. public policy
professor Christopher Berry to
lead the technical aspects.
Berry and RW Ventures’ chief
statistician, Michael He, discov-
ered high rates of regressivity in
the system and delivered the
findings to Houlihan, along with a
proposal to attempt to fix the
problem.
“I was struck by the level of
regressivity,” said Berry. “It wasn't
something I came in expecting to
see. We thought maybe we could
do something about it.”
The following year, in 2010,
MacArthur provided another
grant to LISC so it could hire RW
Ventures and Berry to develop a
new computer model for the
county that would accurately val-
ue homes and cut down on
regressivity.
Regressivity is an inherent
problem in mass-appraisal models
because they rely on averages. The
models take certain characteris-
tics of homes that sold and figure
out average values for each one —
the price per bathroom, per
square foot and so on. Those
values are then used to estimate
market prices for everyone.
But there’s a lot of information
the models don’t capture, such as
remodeling, and that can affect
the market value. So, one house
with two bedrooms and two baths
might sell for $300,000 and an-
other with the same characteris-
tics might go for $100,000. The
mass appraisal models would av-
erage the two, and the resulting
value of $200,000 would be too
low for one house and too high for
the other.
The housing market crash ex-
acerbated the regressivity prob-
lem because the models rely on
the previous five years of sales.
Sales prior to the crash had been
included in the models, driving up
the assessor’s estimates for many
properties, especially in poorer
areas where values had collapsed.
After months of testing, Berry
and the RW Ventures team settled
on a novel approach: Divide prop-
erties used in the models into
segments based on sale price —
high, medium or low — and
compute values separately. That
way, two houses with similar
characteristics but wildly differ-
ent sale prices wouldn’t skew the
estimates for all homes.
“We really didn't know when
we first got into it how successful
we would be,” said Berry. “That's
why we tried so many different
kinds of models.”
By 2010, Berry’s team was done
with refinements and confident in
what it had developed. Studies
conducted by the team found that
its new model outperformed the
assessor’s old model on every
measure.
One benefit was that the new
System hits a breaking point
The accuracy of residential property valuations can be checked by dividing the assessor’s estimated market values by the prices of homes that sold within the same year. The
resulting ratio should be close to 1. But in Cook County, the Tribune found, sales ratios were low for years. Then, in 2009, they exploded all over the map.
BEFORE 2009: HOMES UNDERASSESSED
Prior to 2009, all sales ratios for residential properties were less than 1. The dashed line shows
how higher-priced homes tended to be more undervalued, but the effect was small.
Sales ratio study for Hyde Park Township, 2006
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
Sales ratio
1.2
Overvalued
1.0
Undervalued
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
$0 $100k $200k
SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Illinois Department of Revenue, Tribune analysis
model greatly decreased the num-
ber of “hand checks” that would
be required to fix obvious mis-
takes. Because no model is perfect,
assessors use hand checks to
address outliers, values that are
clearly wrong. Experts in assess-
ments say hand checks should be
kept to a minimum and any
changes should be thoroughly
documented.
Before the new model could be
implemented, however, Houlihan
announced his retirement. Berrios
became the new assessor in De-
cember 2010.
For more than two decades,
Berrios had been a member of the
Cook County Board of Review, an
elected three-member panel that
fields assessment appeals. Weiss-
bourd said that after Berrios
assumed office, Weissbourd urged
him to deploy the new model.
Instead, Berrios waited.
Nearly a year later, in late 2011,
MacArthur released another
round of grant money to develop a
manual and training program for
the assessor’s office. But not until
July 2013 — 21⁄2 years after the
new model had been built — did
Berrios allow Weissbourd’s team
to begin showing staff how to use
it.
Another two years passed be-
fore Berrios issued a news release
in July 2015 stating that he had
“implemented a new state-of-the-
art residential assessment mod-
eling technique that assesses the
value of homes in different price
ranges to improve accuracy.”
Among other things, the release
stated that the new models im-
proved accuracy by 50 percent
and cut down on regressivity by 25
percent. “The technique was de-
veloped to address ‘regressivity,’
which results in higher-priced
homes being under-assessed,” the
news release said.
“We created new assessment
models ensuring the fairest and
most accurate assessment pos-
sible,” Berrios was quoted as
saying. “Good government is fair
and its information clear.”
MacArthur Foundation Presi-
dent Julia Stasch provided a quote
for Berrios’ news release that
praised him for his “leadership
and persistence in demanding a
more sophisticated assessment
model.”
But the new model was never
fully implemented. Stasch and the
public never knew.
In the dark
The creators of the MacArthur-
funded computer program also
were left in the dark.
After analyzing the 2015 reas-
sessment for city properties, the
Tribune found that the values
weren’t as accurate or fair as
would be expected if Berrios had
used the MacArthur-funded mod-
el. So the newspaper contacted
Weissbourd and Berry in the
spring of 2016.
Both said they were under the
impression that Berrios was using
their work.
“We spent weeks training staff,”
Berry said. “It just seemed un-
imaginable that they wouldn’t
have implemented the model.”
Making requests under the
Freedom of Information Act, the
Tribune obtained the models that
the assessor’s office said it used for
the 2015 reassessment. A thor-
ough review of the computer code
found few differences between
those models and the ones used
previously.
So the newspaper asked the
assessor’s office specifically for
the new model, as well as any
results the office had produced
from it.
The Tribune found that just 2
percent of those results matched
the market values that the office
sent to taxpayers.
Informed of the Tribune’s find-
ings, Stasch of the MacArthur
Foundation said in a statement
that she had expected that the
new model would replace the old
$300k $400k $500k $600k $700k $800k
Selling price of home
Kenyetta Braxton-Williams, shown with her dog, said she bought her Calumet City home at the urging of her
grandmother but now struggles to pay her rising property taxes.
Braxton-Williams bought the house for $82,000 in 2010. The following year, the assessor valued it at
$147,550. “I love my house, but I know it’s not worth that much,” she said.
one.
“Increasing accuracy and equi-
ty of property tax assessments
would benefit hundreds of thou-
sands of local homeowners,” she
said, “particularly in low- and
middle-income neighborhoods.”
In the September 2016 inter-
view, Jaconetty told the Tribune
the office used both models but
would not say how it reconciled
the two. He also could not identify
any other jurisdiction in the coun-
try that uses two models or cite
any studies conducted by the
office that justify the practice.
“This is not a situation where
two models work better than one,”
said Weissbourd. “It’s not a matter
of opinion. If you have a ther-
mometer that’s accurate to 5
degrees and someone comes along
with one that’s accurate to 1
degree, there’s no reason to use
both thermometers.”
2009: A YEAR OF ERRORS
Valuation errors exploded in 2009; factors included the housing market collapse and changes
to the assessor’s computer models. Many lower-priced homes were dramatically overvalued.
Sales ratio study for Hyde Park Township, 2009
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
Sales ratio
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
$900k $1M
Pressed further by the Tribune
in that interview, Jaconetty pro-
vided a different explanation. He
acknowledged that the office did
not rely much on the new model —
it has “issues,” he said — and
instead used the old model as a
baseline.
But only a small fraction of the
estimated values sent to taxpayers
in 2015 matched the results from
the old model, raising further
questions about how the office
arrived at its valuations that year.
Jaconetty also tried to discredit
Weissbourd and Berry, saying
they have a “vested interest” in
promoting their model.
In fact, the assessor’s office
owns the new model, and since
turning it over seven years ago
Weissbourd and Berry say they
haven’t done any work in the
assessment field. (Berry, a tenured
professor at U. of C.’s Harris
$0 $100k $200k $300k $400k $500k
Selling price of home
RYAN MARX AND KYLE BENTLE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
School of Public Policy, teamed
with the Tribune late last year to
examine regressivity and the im-
pact of appeals on assessments as
part of a graduate-level course.)
“If they are not using our model
and are continuing to use the old
model, then they missed an oppor-
tunity to reduce regressivity,
which would have helped people
who own the lowest-priced
homes in the county,” said Berry.
“That would be inexcusable.
“It’s not like we’re saying ours is
perfect. There is a lot more work
to be done. But our model was a
major improvement.”
This month, the assessor’s of-
fice contended in a written state-
ment that it had told Weissbourd
and Berry as early as 2010 that
“sole and exclusive use” of the
new model was “grossly unreli-
able” and “creates distortions in
uniformity.”
$600k $700k $800k $900k $1M
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Weissbourd said that assertion
was “a one hundred percent
fabrication and really disturbing.”
“There was never any indica-
tion they were unhappy with the
new model — or not using it —
until the Tribune informed us of
their comments, years later,” he
said.
Said Berry: “Our model sub-
stantially improved uniformity,
and every other industry-standard
metric, and we gave them the
analysis to show it.”
The assessor’s 2015 news re-
lease about the new model did not
mention any problems, instead
touting improvements in accuracy
and fairness. “The assessed values
produced by the model are more
reflective of what the homes’ real
market values are or what they
would sell for,” it stated.
Berry also said he pointed out to
the assessor’s office that the new
model’s more accurate valuations
would have boosted the market
value of some homes dramatically
— presenting a potential political
issue for Berrios.
“I suggested that they may want
to phase in the new model, since it
would significantly increase assess-
ments for high-priced homes,”
Berry said. “But no one ever
followed up with me about it.”
How the county assessor calcu-
lated its 2015 valuations remains
unclear, even after the Tribune
examined the two models avail-
able to the assessor’s office. Very
few of the dollar figures sent to
taxpayers that year align with
either model.
Were adjustments made
through hand checks or some
other way? What methodology
was used?
The assessor’s office would not
say.
In December, Cook County
Associate Judge Neil H. Cohen
ordered the assessor’s office to
provide the Tribune with docu-
ments related to its methods for
valuing property, including hand
checks. The newspaper had filed
suit under the Freedom of Infor-
mation Act after the assessor’s
office denied its request, contend-
ing that the public wasn’t allowed
to see how its process works.
“That’s not what FOIA was
meant for, to hide things from the
citizens,” Cohen said in court.
“FOIA was meant to disclose and
have total transparency of its
elected officials who work for the
people.”
Berrios is appealing the ruling
— at taxpayer expense. So the
documents remain secret.
‘I just can’t keep up’
Whether assessments are fair
isn’t just a technical matter. The
issue directly affects the financial
futures of people whose homes
are their biggest investments and
whose taxes are a source of
MORE ON THE WEB CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM/TAXDIVIDE
constant anxiety.
In July 2010, Kenyetta Braxton-
Williams scraped together
enough money to make a down
payment on a modest $82,000
yellow brick home in Calumet
City.
Braxton-Williams, who earns
$12 an hour working at a homeless
shelter her grandmother founded
on the South Side, said her
grandmother was adamant that
she buy a home and get settled.
“The word she used was stable,”
said Braxton-Williams. “She just
wanted the best for me and my
daughter.”
At first, Braxton-Williams said
her payments — including mort-
gage and taxes — were $600 per
month, doable if she watched
expenses.
Then she received her tax bill
notice in 2011, stating that the
assessor’s office had valued her
home at $147,550. That was almost
double what she had paid for it.
“I love my house, but I know it’s
not worth that much. And they
know it’s not worth that much,”
she said. “In the six years I have
lived here my payments have gone
from $600 a month, to $800, to
$1,200 and now they are $982. I
just can’t keep up.”
In a written statement, the
assessor’s office said its assess-
ment was fair and argued that the
2010 sale was “plainly not an
arms-length, fair-cash-value
transaction” because the home
was purchased from the trust of a
deceased person. However, the
assessor’s own data show that the
office treated it as a standard
transaction, even labeling it a
“pure market” sale.
In 2012, Braxton-Williams de-
cided to appeal her assessment
and by extension her $4,776 annu-
al tax bill.
County officials agreed to lower
the market value on her home to
$93,630, still nearly 15 percent
higher than the amount she paid
for it.
Since then, officials have in-
creased the estimated market val-
ue of the home to $98,560.
“When I bought this house I
had no idea what I was getting
into,” she said. “My credit is shot.
I’m $17,000 in arrears, and now
they keep threatening to take my
home. I love my home, and it’s not
like I have anyplace else to go.”
Braxton-Williams said her
struggle to pay her tax bills and
mortgage has given her a new
sense of empathy in her job as
intake coordinator at the home-
less shelter, A Little Bit of Heaven.
“There have been many times,”
she said, “when I thought I might
be in that same situation.”
John Chase and David Kidwell
contributed.
jgrotto@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @Jason Grotto
Search:
Learn about
assessments in
your area
Methodology: How we
analyzed the tax system
By Jason Grotto
Chicago Tribune
To report this story, the
Tribune gathered more than
100 million electronic property
tax records, including data on
assessments, sales and tax bills.
The data covered tax years
2003 through 2015.
The newspaper used the
data to conduct sales ratio
studies, which assessing offi-
cers around the world use to
evaluate the accuracy and fair-
ness of their valuations.
The steps for the studies are
straightforward. Sales ratio
studies are done by dividing
the assessor’s estimated mar-
ket value of properties that
have sold by the sales price.
The sale must have occurred
within one year after the mass
appraisal.
The newspaper first queried
state property tax transfer data
for all sales of residential prop-
erties between 2003 and 2015.
Residential properties include
single-family homes, condo-
miniums and apartment build-
ings with fewer than seven
units. Sales must be reported to
the Illinois Department of Rev-
enue because state and local
governments levy a tax on
property transfers.
The newspaper then elimi-
nated transactions where the
seller did not advertise that the
property was for sale and sales
between relatives or other re-
lated parties, limiting the list to
what’s known as arm’s-length
sales. Foreclosures, auction
sales, judicial sales and short
sales also were tossed out.
Data obtained from the as-
sessor’s office included the
market value and assessed val-
ue of each segment of a proper-
ty. For example, each property
has a land segment and a
building, or improvement, seg-
ment. Properties can also have
garages, additions, etc.
To determine the total value
the assessor’s office used to
assess each property, the news-
paper summed those segments
into one value, accounting
along the way for any special
exemptions, such as the home
improvement exemption.
The assessment data were
then joined with the arm’s-
length sales data using Proper-
ty Identification Numbers, or
PINs. Each property in the
county, including condo units,
has a unique PIN, similar to a
Social Security number.
Because assessments esti-
mate prices as of Jan. 1 of a
given year, the assessor’s data
Assessor rejects findings from
Tribune’s sales ratio studies
For this series, the Tribune
initially sought answers from
the Cook County assessor’s
office in the fall of 2016.
Officials from the office an-
swered questions in an inter-
view with the Tribune. Howev-
er, Assessor Joseph Berrios did
not participate.
Then, in early May, Tribune
reporter Jason Grotto met with
Tom Shaer, deputy assessor for
communications at the asses-
sor’s office, and went over the
facts the Tribune planned to
report. The office declined to
make any other official avail-
able for an interview.
A week and a half later, the
assessor’s office emailed a re-
sponse that erroneously as-
sumed the Tribune arrived at
its findings by running com-
puter programs used to value
property. In fact, it’s not pos-
sible to draw the conclusions
outlined in the stories from
such programs. Rather, the
newspaper conducted sales ra-
tio studies.
Informed of the error, the
assessor’s office (CCAO) sent
an amended response. Below is
the section that most directly
addresses the Tribune’s find-
ings, followed by the Tribune’s
response.
Assessor’s response
CCAO believes the valuation
and uniformity opinions
formed by the Chicago Tribune
are not sufficiently credible.
Fair property assessment is full
B Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, June 11, 2017
Watch: A video
guide to under-
standing your
property tax bill
were matched to sales that
took place within the same tax
year.
If the ratio of the assessor’s
estimated market value to the
actual sales price is above 1, it
indicates the mass appraisal
model overvalued a property,
while a result below 1 means
the property was undervalued.
For example, if the assessor
estimated a value of $200,000
for a home that sold that same
year for $300,000, the ratio
would be about 0.7. A house
valued at $300,000 that sold
for $200,000 would have a
ratio of 1.5.
The results of any mass
appraisal model are never per-
fect. So sales ratio studies also
include measures of fairness
and accuracy.
One of the most important
statistics produced in the stud-
ies is called the coefficient of
dispersion, or COD. The COD
The Tribune gath-
ered more than 100
million electronic
property tax re-
cords for tax years
2003 through 2015.
measures the distribution of
the ratios relative to the medi-
an and produces a score. A
COD score over 15 means there
is a large amount of variation,
which indicates a high degree
of random error in the assess-
ments, or what assessors refer
to as “horizontal” inequities.
Two other important mea-
sures used by assessing offices
— price-related differential, or
PRD, and price-related bias, or
PRB — focus on “vertical”
inequities in a mass appraisal.
Both tests look at whether
differences between ratios are
correlated with differences in
price. For example, the PRB
measures the percentage by
which ratios fall or rise as
prices increase or decrease.
If higher-priced homes are
undervalued and lower-priced
homes overvalued, the assess-
ments are said to have a high
degree of regressivity.
Before running the statistics,
the newspaper trimmed outli-
ers — ratios that were ex-
tremely high or low — to
ensure they did not skew the
results.
In Cook County, properties
are reassessed every three
of varying opinions and no
valuation system is perfect but
the Tribune’s opinions go far
beyond a reasonable range of
what could be drawn from the
sales data it reviewed. In short,
we strongly disagree with the
Tribune’s opinions.
Some mathematic formulas
and practices do not necessari-
ly opine to real market trans-
actions; CCAO believes the
Tribune’s practices and calcu-
lations include those types of
formulas and practices which
are not necessarily appropri-
ate. Mr. Grotto is an accom-
plished journalist but not an
assessment professional nor,
likely, are any of the other
journalists of the Chicago Trib-
une.
With all due respect, the
Chicago Tribune is dismissing
CCAO assessments by creating
its own sales ratio study despite
court decisions disallowing
even the IDOR sales ratio study
to be admitted into evidence in
property tax litigation that
spans decades.
The Tribune’s sales ratio
study cannot be relied on for
value. Separate from CCAO’s
beliefs, not to be dismissed are
those court decisions because
they established that IDOR
sales ratio studies are not
admissible from plaintiffs chal-
lenging valuation. Thus, it is
fair to say, sales ratio studies by
private citizens such as Mr.
Grotto, who are not licensed
appraisers or other assessment
professionals, would also be
15
Interact: Talk with
reporter Jason Grotto
through Facebook Live
on Tuesday at noon.
years, depending on where in
the county a home is located.
To be as fair as possible, the
Tribune cited only the results
of sales ratio studies based on
calendar years in which trien-
nial reassessments took place.
The Tribune also examined
how results differed if condo-
miniums were excluded from
the sales ratio studies.
The assessor uses computer-
based regression models to
value single-family homes and
small apartment buildings. But
a former county official has
testified that condominiums
were valued by tracking sales
prices within an individual
building and prorating the pre-
dicted value of other units.
The Tribune’s analysis was
reviewed by three assessment
experts who provided feed-
back and suggestions on how to
improve it: Richard Almy
served as executive director of
the International Association
of Assessing Officers, a profes-
sional organization that sets
assessment standards, between
1982 and 1990, and later served
as an assessment consultant
and expert witness. Peter
Davis, the ratio study supervi-
sor for the Kansas Department
of Revenue, helped write sales
ratio study standards for the
IAAO. Robert Denne is an
assessment consultant and for-
mer director of research and
technical services at the IAAO.
“I would say the Tribune
conducted a quite rigorous
study, following all of the prin-
ciples and standards of the
IAAO,” said Almy, now retired.
The Tribune also examined
disparities in the system by
analyzing effective tax rates, or
the percentage of a home’s
value that the owner pays in
taxes. To do this, the news-
paper compared property tax
bills with sales data between
2009 and 2015.
Because the effective tax
rate should be about the same
for everyone in a single taxing
district, calculating and com-
paring the rates for communi-
ties within Chicago was
straightforward. The city is the
largest single taxing district in
the county.
To fairly compare effective
tax rates across the county,
which encompasses numerous
taxing districts, the Tribune
used the tiny fraction of prop-
erty tax bills that funds Cook
County government and the
Forest Preserves of Cook
County. Those are the only
taxing districts that cover the
entire county.
rejected by courts.
CCAO does point to the
IDOR Sales Ratio Study to
show that our assessments are
far more accurate than the
Tribune contends. This, how-
ever, is not the same as such
studies being admitted in court
as evidence of value based
upon case law. Inadmissible in
court = not appropriate in the
Tribune’s court of public opin-
ion.
Tribune’s response
The newspaper’s sales ratio
study involved standard stat-
istical calculations used by as-
sessing experts around the
world. The study was vetted by
top experts in the field, who
said it was rigorous and fair.
Studies by the Illinois De-
partment of Revenue, or IDOR,
have also found regressivity
and high error rates in Cook
County.
When reporting market val-
ues, the Tribune relied on
actual sales. The stories do not
use statistical formulas to esti-
mate market value.
The lawsuits referred to by
the assessor’s office involve
specific properties and tax
years, and do not speak to a
broad evaluation of the coun-
ty’s assessment practices.
No state law bars sales ratio
studies from being admitted
into evidence, and such studies
have been admitted into evi-
dence in many cases around
the country for decades.
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B Final

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Sunday, June 11, 2017

TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE

TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Barbara Garner bought a tiny home in west suburban Melrose Park for $75,000 in 2010. A few months earlier, the Cook
Barbara Garner bought a tiny home in west suburban Melrose Park for $75,000 in 2010. A few months earlier, the Cook County assessor’s office valued it at $164,640.

An unfair burden
County assessor’s office valued it at $164,640.

TRIBUNE WATCHDOG | THE TAX DIVIDE

An unfair burden
County property tax system harmed poorer residents, helped the rich
By Jason Grotto | Chicago Tribune THE SERIES
Sunday Cook County
The problem lies with the fundamentally flawed way the
county assessor’s office values property.

County property tax system harmed poorer residents,

Chicago has long been a city divided by race and class, a
metropolis with starkly different crime rates, economic
realities and educational opportunities depending on where
property taxes harmed
the poor, helped the rich
Monday The appeals
The valuations are a crucial factor when it comes to
calculating property tax bills, a burden that for many
determines whether they can afford to stay in their homes.
you live.
helped the rich
But there’s another division in Chicago and Cook County,
one that for years has gone unexamined even as it pits rich
process makes assess-
ments even less fair
Tuesday An era of errors
Done well, these estimates should be fair, transparent and stand
up to scrutiny.
But that’s not how it works in Cook County, where Assessor
against poor. may have expensive con- Joseph Berrios has resisted reforms and ignored industry
An unprecedented analysis by the Tribune reveals that for sequences for taxpayers standards while his office churned out inaccurate values. The
years the county’s property tax system created an unequal
burden on residents, handing huge financial breaks to
By Jason Grotto
Read the whole series at
result is a staggering pattern of inequality.
From North Lawndale and Little Village to Calumet City and
homeowners who are well-off while punishing those who have chicagotribune.com/
the least, particularly people living in minority communities. taxdivide Turn to Property tax, Page 12

Chicago has long been a city divided by race and class, a metropolis with starkly
different crime rates, economic realities and educational opportunities depending
on where
Tick threatyou high live.this summer, experts warn ANALYSIS

But there’s
By James Steinbauer
another division
2000, and each year since they
in Chicago and Cook
InCounty,
duel about one truth,that foradvantage years has
gone unexamined
and Leonor Vivanco
Chicago Tribune even with a as itstarlike
have noticed that the small
arachnid white, pits rich against poor. lies with Comey over Trump
spot on its posterior has ap-
WhenAn unprecedented analysis
Keith Clay became in- peared more frequently and by the Tribune reveals By Philipthat Bump for years the
If that seemscounty’s
familiar, it should.
terested in ticks almost 17 years moved farther north. The Washington Post It was precisely the strategy
property tax system
ago, the lone star tick couldn’t be
found in southern Indiana. are joining created
The lone star and other ticks
an unequal burden onWASHINGTON
a list of bloodsucking residents, handing
— There are the 2016hugecampaign, finan-
Trump and his team used during
fighting hard
Now, he says, it is the most bugs that scientists say are ex- two steps involved in President against Hillary Clinton until she
cial
common. breaks to homeowners who are well-off whileallegations
panding their ranges and
Clay, a professor of biology at potential to spread disease. The
their punishing
Donald Trump’s defense those who have the
of the was viewed as unfavorably
leveled against him by was and then squeaking past her
as he

least, particularly
mini-ecosystems Lymepeople disease and living
Indiana University in Blooming- blacklegged tick, which carries
ton, studies the the deadly in minority communities.
former FBI Director James in just enough places to win the
Comey. presidency.
of bacteria, viruses and other Powassan virus, has already tak- BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE The first is to make the question Here’s how this works in the
Thethat
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ticks house. enlies with the
up residence
He and his team of students have spreading south from Wisconsin.
fundamentally flawedthe
in Illinois,
Blacklegged ticks — shown as way
a he-said,
larva, bottom, adult, left, and
thecontest
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two men. The second is to
case of Comey. office
During a news conference with
values
hour property.
collected ticks in the forests an
south of Indianapolis sinceTurn to Ticks, Page 9
adult after feeding — migrated
from Wisconsin into Illinois.
make himself seem more believ-
able. Turn to Truth, Page 26

The valuations are a crucial factor when it comes to calculating property tax bills,
aTOMburden
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 But that’s not how it works in Cook County, where Assessor Joseph Berrios has
resisted reforms and ignored industry standards while his office churned out inac-
curate values. The result is a staggering pattern of inequality.
From North Lawndale and Little Village to Calumet City and Melrose Park, resi-
dents in working-class neighborhoods were more likely to receive property tax bills
that assumed their homes were worth more than their true market value, the Tri-
bune found.
Meanwhile, many living in the county’s wealthier and mostly white communi-
ties — including Winnetka, Glencoe, Lakeview and the Gold Coast — caught a break
because property taxes weren’t based on the full value of their homes.
As a result, people living in poorer areas tended to pay more in taxes as a percent-
age of their home’s value than residents in more affluent communities. Known as
the effective tax rate, the percentage should be roughly the same for everyone living
in a single taxing district.
But the Tribune’s analysis shows the rates became skewed in favor of wealthier
residents.
The assessor’s office says it does not check its own work for fairness and accu-
racy, as is standard practice for assessors around the world.
So the Tribune stepped in, compiling and analyzing more than 100 million prop-
erty tax records from the years 2003 through 2015, along with thousands of pages of
documents, then vetting the findings with top experts in the field. The process took
more than a year.
The conclusion: Residential assessments have been so far off the mark for so
many years that the credibility of the entire property tax system is in doubt.
Berrios, who took office in December 2010, declined to be interviewed for this
series. But through an interview in September with top aide Thomas Jaconetty, and
then in written statements in 2017, the office defended its assessments as fair and
accurate and said it strongly disagreed with the Tribune’s findings.
“The (Cook County assessor’s office) believes the valuation and uniformity opin-
ions formed by the Chicago Tribune are not sufficiently credible,” the office said in
a statement.
The latest powerful politician to hold his office, Berrios is chairman of the Cook
County Democratic Party and controls three active campaign funds where he’s
raised more than $5 million since 2009, more than half of which came from prop-
erty tax attorneys and the businesses associated with them. Among his strongest
allies: Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and Ald. Edward Burke, both prop-
erty tax lawyers who benefit from the county’s broken system.
It isn’t as if Berrios is unaware of the problems with his assessments. In July
2015, he boasted in a news release that his office had adopted new, state-of-the-art
computer models designed to improve accuracy and address persistent inequalities.
But the Tribune’s examination of the computer programs officials say they used
to value residential properties in 2015 shows Berrios continued to use the old, faulty
model.
“My understanding at the time of the press release was that they were going to
replace the old model with the new one,” said Robert Weissbourd, who led the team
that created the new model and was quoted in the release. “The new model was
technically, by every measure, more accurate, fair and transparent.
“If they are not taking advantage of it, that would be deeply troubling. There’s
millions of dollars at stake for the county’s poorest residents.”
In Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood, Gail Bates knew there was some-
thing wrong with the county’s valuation practices as soon as she opened her first
mailing from the assessor.
12 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, June 11, 2017 B

TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE

An unfair burden
Tax burden hea

Lower-priced homes
likely to be overvalued
The Tribune compared actual home s
prices to the market values estimated
Cook County assessor’s office. The da
valuations from 2009 through 2015; A
Joseph Berrios took office in Decemb

OVERVALUED AND
UNDERVALUED
CENSUS TRACTS

Homes were:

Overvalued
by 10% or more
Overvalued
by less than 10%
Equal
valuation
Undervalued
by less than 10%
Undervalued
by 10% or more

Standards of accuracy, fair

No system of property valuation prod
experts use statistical tests to ensure
within reasonable limits. Since 2009,
assessments have violated profession

Coefficient of dispersion Price-

The COD is a measure of The PR
errors. A score of 15 basically regres
means the average error rate of low
was 15 percent. under

40 1.25

30

20 1.0

10
Acceptable range

0.75
2003 2007 2011 2015 2003
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Cook Co

Widowed and living alone in a four-bedroom home near Melrose Park, Barbara Garner in 2010 downsized to this much smaller house. But her property tax bill was about the same. TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Widowed and living
to hold alone
Property tax, from Page 1his office, in a four-bedroom
Berrios is home near Melrose Park, Barbara Garner in 2010 downsized to this much
chairman of the Cook County d
smaller house. But her
Democratic
ing-class neighborhoods were
property
Melrose Park, residents in work-
Party and controls tax bill was about the same.
three active campaign funds
e
e
more likely to receive property tax where he’s raised more than $5 r
bills that assumed their homes million since 2009, more than half
were worth more than their true of which came from property tax a

A caseworker for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Bates
market value, the Tribune found. attorneys and the businesses asso- o
Meanwhile, many living in the ciated with them. Among his m
county’s wealthier and mostly strongest allies: Illinois House a
white communities — including Speaker Michael Madigan and b

purchased her two-flat in 2009 for $119,000. According to state law and county or-
Winnetka, Glencoe, Lakeview and Ald. Edward Burke, both property r
the Gold Coast — caught a break tax lawyers who benefit from the
because property taxes weren’t county’s broken system. s
based on the full value of their It isn’t as if Berrios is unaware a

dinance, her property tax bill should be based on her home’s market value.
homes.
As a result, people living in
poorer areas tended to pay more
in taxes as a percentage of their
of the problems with his assess-
ments. In July 2015, he boasted in
a news release that his office had
adopted new, state-of-the-art
e
3
a

Yet that same year, the assessor valued the property at $210,500, and the office
home’s value than residents in
more affluent communities.
Known as the effective tax rate,
computer models designed to
improve accuracy and address
persistent inequalities.
e
3
s

continued to overestimate its value for years afterward.

the percentage should be roughly But the Tribune’s examination i
the same for everyone living in a of the computer programs offi- r
single taxing district. cials say they used to value w
But the Tribune’s analysis residential properties in 2015 s

Bates didn’t appeal in 2009 or in 2012, the year of the next triennial reassess-
shows the rates became skewed in shows Berrios continued to use w
favor of wealthier residents. the old, faulty model.
The assessor’s office says it does “My understanding at the time c
not check its own work for of the press release was that they u

ment. Finally, in 2015 she filed an appeal and won a 10 percent reduction.
fairness and accuracy, as is stand- were going to replace the old a
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

ard practice for assessors around model with the new one,” said Garner’s home, built just after World War II, is less than 800 square feet. “I blew a gasket,” Garner said of her Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios controls three active campaign funds and has raised more than $5 I
the world. Robert Weissbourd, who led the tax bill. “I moved here to save money but instead I was paying the same amount in taxes.” million since 2009. More than half of it came from property tax attorneys and related businesses. s
So the Tribune stepped in, team that created the new model q

“Why does it have to be so unfair?” asked Bates. “We are the people who can least
compiling and analyzing more
than 100 million property tax
records from the years 2003
and was quoted in the release.
“The new model was technically,
by every measure, more accurate,
reassessment. Finally, in 2015 she
filed an appeal and won a 10
percent reduction.
many are done each year. When
the Tribune made an open-re-
cords request for documents de-
unequal system even less fair.
That’s because owners of high-
priced homes are far more likely
measure the accuracy and fairness
of their valuations.
“That’s insane,” said Peter
amount in taxes.”
Garner’s tax bill was higher
than she expected because the
which compare actual sale prices
to their estimates. Cook County
says it doesn’t do the studies,
w

afford it.”
through 2015, along with thou-
sands of pages of documents, then
vetting the findings with top
experts in the field. The process
fair and transparent. “Why does it have to be so tailing how the practice works, to appeal. Davis, an assessing expert who assessor overshot the price she relying instead on research con- d
“If they are not taking advan- unfair?” asked Bates. “We are the Berrios refused. The newspaper In defending the office, Jaco- helped write the standards for the paid for the house by a factor of ducted by the Illinois Department s
tage of it, that would be deeply people who can least afford it.” has filed suit, seeking to obtain the netty also noted that under International Association of As- two, the Tribune found. The of Revenue. But that research c
troubling. There’s millions of dol- In an interview last fall, Jaco- records through a court order. Berrios the county has sent out sessing Officers. “There’s no justi- county had valued the home at comes out years after property o

In an interview last fall, Jaconetty, the county’s deputy assessor for valuation and
took more than a year. lars at stake for the county’s netty, the county’s deputy assessor The assessor’s office also does property tax bills on time, which fication for not doing the studies. $164,640, just months before she taxes are calculated and doesn’t e
The conclusion: Residential as- poorest residents.” for valuation and appeals, dis- not use computer-based mapping hadn’t been the case for about 35 That’s how you find problems.” bought it for $75,000. provide granular details on indi- c
sessments have been so far off the In Chicago’s West Garfield Park missed the need for updated programs that are a common years. Because of this, officials say, In Chicago’s Lakeview neigh- vidual neighborhoods.
mark for so many years that the Deeply unfair
neighborhood, Gail Bates knew assessment models, arguing that feature in modern assessment local governments saved millions borhood, meanwhile, the assessor The Tribune checked the asses- w

appeals, dismissed the need for updated assessment models, arguing that home-
credibility of the entire property
tax system is in doubt.
Berrios, who took office in
December 2010, declined to be
there was something wrong with
the county’s valuation practices as
soon as she opened her first
mailing from the assessor.
homeowners would be relieved to
know that the assessor is not
solely relying on the “purity of
mathematics.”
systems and relies on an outdated
mainframe computer from the
early 1990s as it calculates esti-
mated values for 1.8 million prop-
in borrowing costs for loans used
to tide them over until property
taxes come in.
But that timeliness came as
Widowed and living alone in a
four-bedroom home near Melrose
Park, Barbara Garner decided in
estimated the value of a 2,600-
square-foot house at $787,000 in
2012. That is just over half the
price a couple paid for it the same
sor’s accuracy over 13 years, in-
cluding at the neighborhood level,
by obtaining data on more than 1.4
million sales since 2003 and
s
v
u

owners would be relieved to know that the assessor is not solely relying on the “pu-
interviewed for this series. But
through an interview in Septem-
ber with top aide Thomas Jaco-
A caseworker for the Illinois
Department of Children and Fam-
ily Services, Bates purchased her
“Would they be as concerned
about their assessments being
based purely on math and driven
erties in the county. Officials say
the county is updating its comput-
er system, but the process is
accuracy suffered.
Since 2009, the Tribune found,
Cook County’s assessments have
2010 to downsize.
She swapped her 2,000-square-
foot, two-story house — one of the
year. Five years later, the valuation
is still 30 percent short of the $1.4
million sale price, even though
matching them to assessment
records. Three assessment ex-
perts, including a former execu-
p
C
r

rity of mathematics.”
netty, and then in written state-
ments in 2017, the office defended
its assessments as fair and accu-
rate and said it strongly disagreed
two-flat in 2009 for $119,000. by equations? Or would they feel expected to take years. been so inaccurate they violated biggest in the area — for a nearby home values in the neighborhood tive director of the International d
According to state law and county better knowing there was a hu- Jaconetty stressed that resi- standards set by the International single-story home built just after have soared. Association of Assessing Officers, C
ordinance, her property tax bill man being involved?” he asked. dents who believe their property Association of Assessing Officers, World War II. Her new place is Accurately estimating a proper- vetted the Tribune’s analysis. s
should be based on her home’s That philosophy helps explain is overvalued have the option to a professional organization that smaller than 800 square feet. ty’s market value is crucial be- In its written statement, the

“Would they be as concerned about their assessments being based purely on

with the Tribune’s findings. market value. why the county appears to rely so appeal — and are encouraged to do develops guidelines used around So Garner was shocked when cause that is the first number that assessor’s office contended that a
“The (Cook County assessor’s Yet that same year, the assessor heavily on “hand checks,” a proc- so. the world. she learned her new tax bill would goes into calculating property any privately conducted sales ra- i
office) believes the valuation and valued the property at $210,500, ess in which property values are But when the Tribune part- Valuing property in the wake of be nearly the same amount she’d taxes. If the estimate is faulty, the tio study is invalid because it c
uniformity opinions formed by and the office continued to overes- adjusted manually on a case-by- nered with the University of the 2008 housing market collapse been paying for her old home, fairness of the entire bill is thrown would never be admitted into a S

math and driven by equations? Or would they feel better knowing there was a hu-
the Chicago Tribune are not
sufficiently credible,” the office
said in a statement.
The latest powerful politician
timate its value for years after-
ward.
Bates didn’t appeal in 2009 or in
2012, the year of the next triennial
case basis.
Because the office doesn’t keep
statistics on hand checks, it’s
impossible to tell exactly how
Chicago’s Harris School of Public
Policy to study appeals filed by
homeowners, the paper found
that the process makes an already
was no simple task. But even in a
time of unprecedented upheaval,
the office says it did not run the
studies that assessors carry out to
more than $4,000 a year.
“I blew a gasket,” she said. “I
moved here to save money but
instead I was paying the same
into doubt.
To determine if assessments are
fair and accurate, assessors usu-
ally conduct sales ratio studies,
court of law. In fact, such studies
have been accepted as evidence in
court cases around the country for
decades.
a
c
i
s

man being involved?” he asked.

That philosophy helps explain why the county appears to rely so heavily on
“hand checks,” a process in which property values are adjusted manually on a case-
by-case basis.
Because the office doesn’t keep statistics on hand checks, it’s impossible to tell
exactly how many are done each year. When the Tribune made an open-records re-
quest for documents detailing how the practice works, Berrios refused. The news-
paper has filed suit, seeking to obtain the records through a court order.
The assessor’s office also does not use computer-based mapping programs that
are a common feature in modern assessment systems and relies on an outdated
mainframe computer from the early 1990s as it calculates estimated values for 1.8
million properties in the county. Officials say the county is updating its computer
system, but the process is expected to take years.
Jaconetty stressed that residents who believe their property is overvalued have
the option to appeal — and are encouraged to do so.
 lrose Park, Barbara Garner in 2010 downsized to this much smaller house. But her property tax bill was about the same.

Berrios is
ook County
and controls
paign funds
more than $5
ore than half
property tax
inesses asso-
Among his
nois House
Madigan and
oth property
efit from the
m.
s is unaware
h his assess-
he boasted in
his office had
e-of-the-art
designed to
and address
s.
examination
ograms offi-
d to value
es in 2015
nued to use

g at the time
was that they
ace the old TERRENCE ANTONIO
TERRENCE JAMES/CHICAGO
ANTONIO TRIBUNE
JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
w one,” said Garner’s home,
Garner’s home,built just
built after
just World
after WarWar
World II, is less
II, isthan
less800
thansquare feet. “I blew
800 square feet.a “I
gasket,”
blew aGarner saidGarner
gasket,” of her tax bill.of
said “I her
who led the moved
tax bill. here to save
“I moved money
here but instead
to save moneyI was
but paying
instead the samepaying
I was amount in taxes.”
the same amount in taxes.”
e new model
the release. reassessment. Finally, in 2015 she many are done each year. When unequal system even less fair.
s technically, filedBut
an when
appeal the
and Tribune
won a 10partneredthe Tribune with the an
made University
open-re- of Chicago’s
That’s becauseHarris
ownersSchool
of high-
ore accurate, of Public
percent Policy to study appeals
reduction. filed by
cords request for homeowners,
documents de- the pricedpaper
homesfoundare far that
more the
likely
“Why does it have to be so tailing how the practice works, to appeal.
aking advan- process
unfair?” makes
asked Bates.an
“We already
are the unequal systemThe
Berrios refused. even less fair. That’s
newspaper because
In defending theowners of
office, Jaco-
d be deeply high-priced
people homes
who can least affordare
it.”far more likely
has filed suit,to appeal.
seeking to obtain the netty also noted that under
llions of dol- In an interview last fall, Jaco- records through a court order. Berrios the county has sent out
he county’s netty,In
thedefending theassessor
county’s deputy office, Jaconetty also noted
The assessor’s that
office also under
does Berrios
property the on
tax bills county has
time, which
sent
for out property
valuation tax bills
and appeals, dis- onnottime, which hadn’t
use computer-based been the
mapping casebeen
hadn’t fortheabout
case 35 years.35
for about
Garfield Park missed the need for updated programs that are a common years. Because of this, officials say,
Bates knew Because of
assessment this,arguing
models, officials thatsay,feature
local governments saved millions in borrowing costs
in modern assessment local governments saved millions
wrong with for loans used
homeowners wouldto betide them
relieved to over until
systems andproperty
relies on antaxes comeinin.
outdated borrowing costs for loans used
n practices as know that the assessor is not mainframe computer from the to tide them over until property
ed her first
But that timeliness came as accuracy suffered.
solely relying on the “purity of early 1990s as it calculates esti- taxes come in.
ssor. Since 2009, the Tribune found,
mathematics.” Cook
mated values forCounty’s assessments
1.8 million prop- have
But that been socame
timeliness inac-as
the Illinois “Would they be as concerned erties in the county. Officials say accuracy suffered.
ren and Fam-
curate they violated standards set by the International Association
about their assessments being the county is updating its comput-
of Assessing Of-
Since 2009, the Tribune found,
urchased her ficers,
based a professional
purely organization
on math and driven that but
er system, develops guidelines
the process used
is Cook around
County’s the world.
assessments have
or $119,000. by equations? Or would they
Valuing property in the wake feel expected to take years. been so inaccurate
of the 2008 housing market collapse was no simple they violated
w and county better knowing there was a hu- Jaconetty stressed that resi- standards set by the International
erty tax bill task.
man Butinvolved?”
being even in he a time
asked.of unprecedented
dents who believe upheaval, the office
their property says itofdid
Association not run
Assessing the
Officers,
her home’s That philosophy helps explain is overvalued have the option to
studies that assessors carry out to measure the accuracy and fairness of their valu- a professional organization that
why the county appears to rely so appeal — and are encouraged to do develops guidelines used around
the assessor ations.on “hand checks,” a proc- so.
heavily the world.
at $210,500, ess in which property values are But when the Tribune
“That’s insane,” said Peter Davis, an assessing expert whoValuing part- helped property
writeinthe
the wake
stan-of
ued to overes- adjusted manually on a case-by- nered with the University of the 2008 housing market collapse
years after- dards
case for the International Association
basis. Chicago’s Harris ofSchool
Assessing Officers.
of Public was no “There’s
simple task.noBut
justifica-
even in a
Because the office doesn’t keep Policy to study
tion for not doing the studies. That’s how you find problems.” appeals filed by time of unprecedented upheaval,
in 2009 or in statistics on hand checks, it’s homeowners, the paper found the office says it did not run the
next triennial impossible to tell exactly how that the process makes an already studies that assessors carry out to
Deeply unfair
Widowed and living alone in a four-bedroom home near Melrose Park, Barbara
Garner decided in 2010 to downsize.
She swapped her 2,000-square-foot, two-story house — one of the biggest in the
area — for a nearby single-story home built just after World War II. Her new place
is smaller than 800 square feet.
So Garner was shocked when she learned her new tax bill would be nearly the
same amount she’d been paying for her old home, more than $4,000 a year.
“I blew a gasket,” she said. “I moved here to save money but instead I was paying
the same amount in taxes.”
 Garner’s tax bill was higher than she expected because the assessor overshot the
price she paid for the house by a factor of two, the Tribune found. The county had
valued the home at $164,640, just months before she bought it for $75,000.
In Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, meanwhile, the assessor estimated the
value of a 2,600-square-foot house at $787,000 in 2012. That is just over half the
price a couple paid for it the same year. Five years later, the valuation is still 30 per-
cent short of the $1.4 million sale price, even though home values in the neighbor-
hood have soared.
Accurately estimating a property’s market value is crucial because that is the first
number that goes into calculating property taxes. If the estimate is faulty, the fair-
ness of the entire bill is thrown into doubt.
To determine if assessments are fair and accurate, assessors usually conduct sales
ratio studies, which compare actual sale prices to their estimates. Cook County says
it doesn’t do the studies, relying instead on research conducted by the Illinois De-
partment of Revenue. But that research comes out years after property taxes are
calculated and doesn’t provide granular details on individual neighborhoods.
The Tribune checked the assessor’s accuracy over 13 years, including at the
neighborhood level, by obtaining data on more than 1.4 million sales since 2003 and
matching them to assessment records. Three assessment experts, including a for-
mer executive director of the International Association of Assessing Officers, vetted
the Tribune’s analysis.
In its written statement, the assessor’s office contended that any privately con-
ducted sales ratio study is invalid because it would never be admitted into a court of
law. In fact, such studies have been accepted as evidence in court cases around the
country for decades.
No mass appraisal ever produces exact results, so assessing experts use statistical
tests to ensure that any errors fall within reasonable limits.
The most common measure of accuracy is called the coefficient of dispersion,
or COD. Assessment experts say the highest acceptable score is 15, which basically
means the average error rate was 15 percent.
Prior to 2009, Cook County had scores of around 15, the Tribune’s analysis found.
Since then, however, the scores have been as high as 31 in some townships, meaning
assessments were deeply unfair.
In Chicago, scores for the city’s eight townships ranged from 16 to 31 for the 2012
reassessment. The scores for the 2010 reassessment in the north suburbs and the
2011 reassessment in the south and west suburbs also exceeded the standard of 15,
sometimes by a wide margin.
“If you get CODs over 20, or certainly 30, it’s professionally unacceptable,” said
Richard Almy, a former executive director of the International Association of As-
sessing Officers. “It calls into question the credibility of the whole tax system.”
A high score means the system is riddled with errors, but it doesn’t say whether
the errors are skewed in a way that favors certain groups. That’s where two other
tests — price-related differential and price-related bias — come in.
The tests can help determine whether the property tax system suffers from re-
gressivity: the overvaluing of low-priced homes and undervaluing of high-priced
ones.
The Tribune found regressivity problems exploded in Cook County beginning in
2009, when regressivity scores exceeded industry standards for most of Chicago’s
townships. In 2012, the scores got even worse.
Comparing assessed values to actual sales also reveals inequities in the system.
In the township covering Chicago’s Northwest Side, for example, the 2012 median
assessment level was 10 percent higher than what is called for in county ordinances.
 Tax burden heavier in poorer areas

Lower-priced homes
likely to be overvalued
The Tribune compared actual home sales
prices to the market values estimated by the
Cook County assessor’s office. The data cover
valuations from 2009 through 2015; Assessor
Joseph Berrios took office in December 2010.

OVERVALUED AND
UNDERVALUED
CENSUS TRACTS

Homes were:

Overvalued
by 10% or more
Overvalued
by less than 10%
Equal
valuation
Undervalued
by less than 10%
Undervalued
by 10% or more

Standards of accuracy, fairness not met

No system of property valuation produces exact results, so
experts use statistical tests to ensure that errors fall
within reasonable limits. Since 2009, Cook County’s
assessments have violated professional standards.

Coefficient of dispersion Price-related differential Income rises; tax rates decline

The COD is a measure of The PRD measures These rates represent the percentage of
errors. A score of 15 basically regressivity, the overvaluing homes’ value that owners pay toward the
means the average error rate of low-priced homes and two taxing districts that cover all of Cook
was 15 percent. undervaluing of costly ones. County. Overall tax rates are much higher.
40 1.25
Effective tax rate:
0.16% 0.137%
Income:
$115,558
Effective tax rate

30
0.15%

Effective tax rate:

20 1.0
Acceptable range 0.14%
0.1634%
Income:
10 $37,294
Acceptable range
0.13%
0.75 $21.0k $43.0k $61.6k $116k

2003 2007 2011 2015 2003 2007 2011 2015 Median household income
ES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Cook County treasurer’s office, Illinois Department of Revenue, U.S. Census Bureau, Tribune analysis
RYAN MARX AND KYLE BENTLE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

No mass appraisal ever pro- the Gold Coast and downtown,

duces exact results, so assessing meanwhile, was nearly 20 percent
experts use statistical tests to lower than it should have been.
ensure that any errors fall within Areas of the city where gentrifi-
reasonable limits. cation had taken hold saw values
The most common measure of come in low, while homes just
accuracy is called the coefficient outside those neighborhoods
of dispersion, or COD. Assess- were more likely to be overvalued.
ment experts say the highest Small apartment buildings in the
acceptable score is 15, which trendy eastern parts of Humboldt
 0.75
2003 2007 2011 2015 2003 2007 2
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Cook County treasurer’s

No mass
duces exact
experts use
ensure that a
reasonable li
The most
accuracy is c
of dispersio
ment exper
acceptable
basically mea
rate was 15 p
Prior to 20
scores of aro
analysis foun
er, the scores
31 in some
assessments
In Chicago
eight townsh
31 for the 20
scores for th
in the north
reassessmen
west suburb
standard of
wide margin
“If you ge
certainly 30
unacceptable
ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO
ANTONIO TRIBUNE
PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE a former exe
CookCounty
Cook County Assessor
AssessorJoseph Berrios
Joseph controls
Berrios threethree
controls activeactive
campaign funds and
campaign has and
funds raised more
has thanmore
raised $5 million
thansince
$5 Internationa
2009. More than half of it came from property tax attorneys and related businesses.
million since 2009. More than half of it came from property tax attorneys and related businesses. sessing Offi
question the
measure the accuracythat
The township and fairness
includesamount Lincoln in taxes.”
Park, the Gold Coast whichand compare
downtown,actual sale prices
mean- whole tax sys
of their valuations. Garner’s tax bill was higher to their estimates. Cook County A high sco
while,
“That’swas nearlysaid
insane,” 20 percent
Peter than lowershe than it should
expected becausehavethe been.
says it doesn’t do the studies, is riddled
Davis,Areas
an assessing
of the expert
city who
where assessor
gentrificationovershot the
had price
taken she
hold relying instead on
saw values comeresearch con-
in low, doesn’t say w
helped write the standards for the paid for the house by a factor of ducted by the Illinois Department skewed in
while homes
International just outside
Association of As- thosetwo, neighborhoods
the Tribune found. were Themoreof likely
Revenue. to be
But overvalued.
that research certain group
sessing Officers. “There’s no justi- county had valued the home
Small apartment buildings in the trendy eastern parts of Humboldt Park and Logan at comes out years after property other tests —
fication for not doing the studies. $164,640, just months before she taxes are calculated and doesn’t ential and p
Square
That’s howwere
you findlikely to catch bought
problems.” a break while
it for many on the west
$75,000. providesides of the
granular neighbor-
details on indi- come in.
hoods got hammered. In Chicago’s Lakeview neigh- vidual neighborhoods. The tests
DeeplyBungalowsunfairin the far south borhood, meanwhile, the assessor
suburbs
estimated of Chicago
the value of a 2,600-
The Tribune checked the asses-
Heights, Lynwood
sor’s accuracy over and Ford
13 years, in-
whether the
suffers from
Widowed and living alone in a square-foot house at $787,000
Heights were far more likely to be overvalued while luxury homes in Wilmette and in cluding at the neighborhood level, valuing of lo
four-bedroom home near Melrose 2012. That is just over half the by obtaining data on more than 1.4 undervaluing
Winnetka
Park, Barbara were
Garnerundervalued,
decided in price some by as
a couple much
paid for it as
thehalf.
same million sales since 2003 and The Tribu
2010 The
to downsize. year. Five years
2015 reassessment for Chicago was slightly better later, the valuation matching
than inthem 2012,to asassessment
regres- problems e
She swapped her 2,000-square- is still 30 percent short of the $1.4 records. Three assessment ex- County begin
sivity
foot, for the
two-story houseentire
— onecity
of thefell million
to acceptable
sale price,levels. But theperts,
even though scores still failed
including to meet
a former execu- regressivity
biggest in the area — for a nearby home values in the neighborhood
professional standards in many townships, the Tribune found, and the county as a tive director of the International dustry stan
single-story home built just after have soared. Association of Assessing Officers, Chicago’s tow
whole
World War continued
II. Her new toplace
suffer is from severe regressivity.
Accurately estimating a proper- vetted the Tribune’s analysis. scores got ev
smaller than 800 square
Moreover, feet.
if condominiums ty’s market value is crucial
are excluded from the In its error
be- analysis, writtenrates
statement,
and re-the Comparin
So Garner was shocked when cause that is the first number that assessor’s office contended that actual sales a
gressivity
she learned herviolated standards
new tax bill would goes acrossintothe board inproperty
calculating 2015. The anyassessor’s office histori-
privately conducted sales ra- in the syste
becally
nearly the same amount she’d taxes. If the estimate is faulty,
has been better at valuing condos, the Tribune found. One former official the tio study is invalid because
saidit covering C
been paying for her old home, fairness of the entire bill is thrown would never be admitted into a Side, for exa
in athan
more court deposition
$4,000 a year. that the intovalue
doubt. of a condo was estimated court ofby law.tracking sales
In fact, such in
studies an assessme
“I blew
the same a gasket,”
building she—said. “I
a different Tomethod
determinethan if assessments
the flawed have been accepted
are computer models as evidence
used forin cent higher t
moved here to save money but fair and accurate, assessors usu- court cases around the country for in county or
single-family
instead I was paying homesthe and
samesmall ally apartment
conduct salesbuildings.
ratio studies, decades. ship that inc
The pattern of regressivity in Cook County meant that the tax burden — the fixed
amount of money that the county is going to collect — was being distributed ineq-
uitably as well.
By comparing sale prices to property tax bills, the Tribune and the University of
Chicago calculated the effective tax rate for Chicago and found it differed widely
by neighborhood between 2009 and 2015, even though the rate should have been
roughly the same for everyone.
For example, the average effective tax rate in North Lawndale and Little Village
was around 2 percent — about two times higher than in wealthier areas like the
Gold Coast and Lincoln Park.
The fix that wasn’t
The 2009 reassessment for the city of Chicago was so problematic that it was
clear something needed to be done.
The assessor’s office had overvalued some lower-priced homes by as much as
150 percent, the Tribune’s analysis shows. And complaints were pouring in, espe-
cially from neighborhoods where property values had collapsed in the aftermath of
the housing market crash.
James Houlihan, the assessor at the time, turned to outsiders for some help.
The MacArthur Foundation agreed to fund a grant for another nonprofit group,
LISC, to examine how foreclosures had affected housing prices. RW Ventures, a
consulting firm, was tapped by the nonprofit to oversee the project, and Weiss-
bourd, president of the firm, drafted U. of C. public policy professor Christopher
Berry to lead the technical aspects.
Berry and RW Ventures’ chief statistician, Michael He, discovered high rates of
regressivity in the system and delivered the findings to Houlihan, along with a pro-
posal to attempt to fix the problem.
“I was struck by the level of regressivity,” said Berry. “It wasn’t something I came
in expecting to see. We thought maybe we could do something about it.”
The following year, in 2010, MacArthur provided another grant to LISC so it
could hire RW Ventures and Berry to develop a new computer model for the county
that would accurately value homes and cut down on regressivity.
Regressivity is an inherent problem in mass-appraisal models because they rely
on averages. The models take certain characteristics of homes that sold and figure
out average values for each one — the price per bathroom, per square foot and so on.
Those values are then used to estimate market prices for everyone.
But there’s a lot of information the models don’t capture, such as remodeling,
and that can affect the market value. So, one house with two bedrooms and two
baths might sell for $300,000 and another with the same characteristics might go
for $100,000. The mass appraisal models would average the two, and the resulting
value of $200,000 would be too low for one house and too high for the other.
The housing market crash exacerbated the regressivity problem because the
models rely on the previous five years of sales. Sales prior to the crash had been
included in the models, driving up the assessor’s estimates for many properties, es-
pecially in poorer areas where values had collapsed.
After months of testing, Berry and the RW Ventures team settled on a novel ap-
proach: Divide properties used in the models into segments based on sale price —
high, medium or low — and compute values separately. That way, two houses with
similar characteristics but wildly different sale prices wouldn’t skew the estimates
for all homes.
“We really didn’t know when we first got into it how successful we would be,”
said Berry. “That’s why we tried so many different kinds of models.”
By 2010, Berry’s team was done with refinements and confident in what it had
developed. Studies conducted by the team found that its new model outperformed
the assessor’s old model on every measure.
One benefit was that the new model greatly decreased the number of “hand
checks” that would be required to fix obvious mistakes. Because no model is perfect,
assessors use hand checks to address outliers, values that are clearly wrong. Ex-
perts in assessments say hand checks should be kept to a minimum and any changes
should be thoroughly documented.
Before the new model could be implemented, however, Houlihan announced his
retirement. Berrios became the new assessor in December 2010.
For more than two decades, Berrios had been a member of the Cook County
Board of Review, an elected three-member panel that fields assessment appeals.
Weissbourd said that after Berrios assumed office, Weissbourd urged him to deploy
the new model.
Instead, Berrios waited.
Nearly a year later, in late 2011, MacArthur released another round of grant mon-
ey to develop a manual and training program for the assessor’s office. But not until
July 2013 — 2 1/2 years after the new model had been built — did Berrios allow
Weissbourd’s team to begin showing staff how to use it.
Another two years passed before Berrios issued a news release in July 2015 stat-
ing that he had “implemented a new state-of-the-art residential assessment model-
ing technique that assesses the value of homes in different price ranges to improve
accuracy.”
Among other things, the release stated that the new models improved accuracy
by 50 percent and cut down on regressivity by 25 percent. “The technique was de-
veloped to address ‘regressivity,’ which results in higher-priced homes being under-
assessed,” the news release said.
“We created new assessment models ensuring the fairest and most accurate as-
sessment possible,” Berrios was quoted as saying. “Good government is fair and its
information clear.”
MacArthur Foundation President Julia Stasch provided a quote for Berrios’ news
release that praised him for his “leadership and persistence in demanding a more
sophisticated assessment model.”
But the new model was never fully implemented. Stasch and the public never
knew.
In the dark
The creators of the MacArthur-funded computer program also were left in the
dark.
After analyzing the 2015 reassessment for city properties, the Tribune found that
the values weren’t as accurate or fair as would be expected if Berrios had used the
MacArthur-funded model. So the newspaper contacted Weissbourd and Berry in
the spring of 2016.
Both said they were under the impression that Berrios was using their work.
“We spent weeks training staff,” Berry said. “It just seemed unimaginable that
they wouldn’t have implemented the model.”
Making requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the Tribune obtained
the models that the assessor’s office said it used for the 2015 reassessment. A thor-
ough review of the computer code found few differences between those models and
the ones used previously.
So the newspaper asked the assessor’s office specifically for the new model, as
well as any results the office had produced from it.
The Tribune found that just 2 percent of those results matched the market val-
ues that the office sent to taxpayers.
Informed of the Tribune’s findings, Stasch of the MacArthur Foundation said in
a statement that she had expected that the new model would replace the old one.
“Increasing accuracy and equity of property tax assessments would benefit hun-
dreds of thousands of local homeowners,” she said, “particularly in low- and mid-
dle-income neighborhoods.”
In the September 2016 interview, Jaconetty told the Tribune the office used both
models but would not say how it reconciled the two. He also could not identify any
other jurisdiction in the country that uses two models or cite any studies conducted
by the office that justify the practice.
“This is not a situation where two models work better than one,” said Weiss-
System hits a breaking point
The accuracy of residential property valuations can be checked by dividing the asses-
sor’s estimated market values by the prices of homes that sold within the same year. The
resulting ratio should be close to 1. But in Cook County, the Tribune found, sales ratios
were low for years. Then, in 2009, they exploded all over the map.
BEFORE 2009: HOMES UNDERASSESSED
Prior to 2009, all sales ratios for residential properties were less than 1. The dashed line shows
how higher-priced homes tended to be more undervalued, but the effect was small.
Sales ratio study for Hyde Park Township, 2006
2.0

1.8

1.6

1.4
Sales ratio

1.2
Overvalued
1.0
Undervalued
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
$0 $100k $200k $300k $400k $500k $600k $700k $800k $900k $1M

Selling price of home

2009: A YEAR OF ERRORS

Valuation errors exploded in 2009; factors included the housing market collapse and changes
to the assessor’s computer models. Many lower-priced homes were dramatically overvalued.

Sales ratio study for Hyde Park Township, 2009

2.0

1.8

1.6

1.4
Sales ratio

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
$0 $100k $200k $300k $400k $500k $600k $700k $800k $900k $1M

Selling price of home

SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Illinois Department of Revenue, Tribune analysis
RYAN MARX AND KYLE BENTLE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
bourd. “It’s not a matter of opinion. If you have a thermometer that’s accurate to 5
degrees and someone comes along with one that’s accurate to 1 degree, there’s no
reason to use both thermometers.”
Pressed further by the Tribune in that interview, Jaconetty provided a different
explanation. He acknowledged that the office did not rely much on the new model
— it has “issues,” he said — and instead used the old model as a baseline.
But only a small fraction of the estimated values sent to taxpayers in 2015 matched
the results from the old model, raising further questions about how the office ar-
rived at its valuations that year.
Jaconetty also tried to discredit Weissbourd and Berry, saying they have a “vest-
ed interest” in promoting their model.
In fact, the assessor’s office owns the new model, and since turning it over seven
years ago Weissbourd and Berry say they haven’t done any work in the assessment
field. (Berry, a tenured professor at U. of C.’s Harris School of Public Policy, teamed
with the Tribune late last year to examine regressivity and the impact of appeals on
assessments as part of a graduate-level course.)
“If they are not using our model and are continuing to use the old model, then
they missed an opportunity to reduce regressivity, which would have helped people
who own the lowest-priced homes in the county,” said Berry. “That would be inex-
cusable.
“It’s not like we’re saying ours is perfect. There is a lot more work to be done. But
our model was a major improvement.”
This month, the assessor’s office contended in a written statement that it had
told Weissbourd and Berry as early as 2010 that “sole and exclusive use” of the new
model was “grossly unreliable” and “creates distortions in uniformity.”
Weissbourd said that assertion was “a one hundred percent fabrication and re-
ally disturbing.”
“There was never any indication they were unhappy with the new model — or
not using it — until the Tribune informed us of their comments, years later,” he said.
Said Berry: “Our model substantially improved uniformity, and every other in-
dustry-standard metric, and we gave them the analysis to show it.”
The assessor’s 2015 news release about the new model did not mention any prob-
lems, instead touting improvements in accuracy and fairness. “The assessed values
produced by the model are more reflective of what the homes’ real market values
are or what they would sell for,” it stated.
Berry also said he pointed out to the assessor’s office that the new model’s more
accurate valuations would have boosted the market value of some homes dramati-
cally — presenting a potential political issue for Berrios.
“I suggested that they may want to phase in the new model, since it would signif-
icantly increase assessments for high-priced homes,” Berry said. “But no one ever
followed up with me about it.”
How the county assessor calculated its 2015 valuations remains unclear, even af-
ter the Tribune examined the two models available to the assessor’s office. Very few
of the dollar figures sent to taxpayers that year align with either model.
Were adjustments made through hand checks or some other way? What meth-
odology was used?
The assessor’s office would not say.
In December, Cook County Associate Judge Neil H. Cohen ordered the asses-
sor’s office to provide the Tribune with documents related to its methods for valu-
ing property, including hand checks. The newspaper had filed suit under the Free-
dom of Information Act after the assessor’s office denied its request, contending
that the public wasn’t allowed to see how its process works.
 TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Kenyetta Braxton-Williams, shown with her dog, said she bought her Calumet City home at the urging of her grand-
mother but now struggles to pay her rising property taxes.

“That’s not what FOIA was meant for, to hide things from the citizens,” Cohen
said in court. “FOIA was meant to disclose and have total transparency of its elected
officials who work for the people.”
Berrios is appealing the ruling — at taxpayer expense. So the documents remain
secret.
‘I just can’t keep up’
Whether assessments are fair isn’t just a technical matter. The issue directly af-
fects the financial futures of people whose homes are their biggest investments and
whose taxes are a source of constant anxiety.
In July 2010, Kenyetta Braxton-Williams scraped together enough money to
make a down payment on a modest $82,000 yellow brick home in Calumet City.
Braxton-Williams, who earns $12 an hour working at a homeless shelter her
grandmother founded on the South Side, said her grandmother was adamant that
she buy a home and get settled.
“The word she used was stable,” said Braxton-Williams. “She just wanted the
best for me and my daughter.”
At first, Braxton-Williams said her payments — including mortgage and taxes —
were $600 per month, doable if she watched expenses.
Then she received her tax bill notice in 2011, stating that the assessor’s office had
valued her home at $147,550. That was almost double what she had paid for it.
“I love my house, but I know it’s not worth that much. And they know it’s not
worth that much,” she said. “In the six years I have lived here my payments have
gone from $600 a month, to $800, to $1,200 and now they are $982. I just can’t keep
up.”
In a written statement, the assessor’s office said its assessment was fair and ar-
gued that the 2010 sale was “plainly not an arms-length, fair-cash-value transac-
tion” because the home was purchased from the trust of a deceased person. How-
ever, the assessor’s own data show that the office treated it as a standard transaction,
even labeling it a “pure market” sale.
In 2012, Braxton-Williams decided to appeal her assessment and by extension
her $4,776 annual tax bill.
 TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Braxton-Williams bought the house for $82,000 in 2010. The following year, the assessor valued it at $147,550. “I love my
house, but I know it’s not worth that much,” she said.

County officials agreed to lower the market value on her home to $93,630, still
nearly 15 percent higher than the amount she paid for it.
Since then, officials have increased the estimated market value of the home to
$98,560.
“When I bought this house I had no idea what I was getting into,” she said. “My
credit is shot. I’m $17,000 in arrears, and now they keep threatening to take my
home. I love my home, and it’s not like I have anyplace else to go.”
Braxton-Williams said her struggle to pay her tax bills and mortgage has given
her a new sense of empathy in her job as intake coordinator at the homeless shelter,
A Little Bit of Heaven.
“There have been many times,” she said, “when I thought I might be in that same
situation.”

John Chase and David Kidwell contributed.


TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Weissbourd said that assertion
was “a one hundred percent
fabrication and really disturbing.”
“There was never any indica-
tion they were unhappy with the
new model — or not using it —
until the Tribune informed us of
their comments, years later,” he
said.
Said Berry: “Our model sub-
stantially improved uniformity,
and every other industry-standard
metric, and we gave them the
analysis to show it.”
The assessor’s 2015 news re-
lease about the new model did not
mention any problems, instead
touting improvements in accuracy
and fairness. “The assessed values
produced by the model are more
reflective of what the homes’ real
market values are or what they
would sell for,” it stated.
Berry also said he pointed out to
the assessor’s office that the new
model’s more accurate valuations
would have boosted the market
value of some homes dramatically
— presenting a potential political
issue for Berrios.
“I suggested that they may want
to phase in the new model, since it
would significantly increase assess-
ments for high-priced homes,”
Berry said. “But no one ever
followed up with me about it.”
How the county assessor calcu-
lated its 2015 valuations remains
unclear, even after the Tribune
examined the two models avail-
able to the assessor’s office. Very
few of the dollar figures sent to
taxpayers that year align with
either model.
Were adjustments made
through hand checks or some
other way? What methodology
was used?
The assessor’s office would not
say.
In December, Cook County
Associate Judge Neil H. Cohen
ordered the assessor’s office to
provide the Tribune with docu-
ments related to its methods for
valuing property, including hand
checks. The newspaper had filed
suit under the Freedom of Infor-
mation Act after the assessor’s
office denied its request, contend-
ing that the public wasn’t allowed
to see how its process works.
“That’s not what FOIA was
meant for, to hide things from the
citizens,” Cohen said in court.
“FOIA was meant to disclose and
have total transparency of its
elected officials who work for the
people.”
Berrios is appealing the ruling
— at taxpayer expense. So the
documents remain secret.
‘I just can’t keep up’
Whether assessments are fair
isn’t just a technical matter. The
issue directly affects the financial
futures of people whose homes
are their biggest investments and
whose taxes are a source of
MORE ON THE WEB CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM/TAXDIVIDE
constant anxiety.
In July 2010, Kenyetta Braxton-
Williams scraped together
enough money to make a down
payment on a modest $82,000
yellow brick home in Calumet
City.
Braxton-Williams, who earns
$12 an hour working at a homeless
shelter her grandmother founded
on the South Side, said her
grandmother was adamant that
she buy a home and get settled.
“The word she used was stable,”
said Braxton-Williams. “She just
wanted the best for me and my
daughter.”
At first, Braxton-Williams said
her payments — including mort-
gage and taxes — were $600 per
month, doable if she watched
expenses.
Then she received her tax bill
notice in 2011, stating that the
assessor’s office had valued her
home at $147,550. That was almost
double what she had paid for it.
“I love my house, but I know it’s
not worth that much. And they
know it’s not worth that much,”
she said. “In the six years I have
lived here my payments have gone
from $600 a month, to $800, to
$1,200 and now they are $982. I
just can’t keep up.”
In a written statement, the
assessor’s office said its assess-
ment was fair and argued that the
2010 sale was “plainly not an
arms-length, fair-cash-value
transaction” because the home
was purchased from the trust of a
deceased person. However, the
assessor’s own data show that the
office treated it as a standard
transaction, even labeling it a
“pure market” sale.
In 2012, Braxton-Williams de-
cided to appeal her assessment
and by extension her $4,776 annu-
al tax bill.
County officials agreed to lower
the market value on her home to
$93,630, still nearly 15 percent
higher than the amount she paid
for it.
Since then, officials have in-
creased the estimated market val-
ue of the home to $98,560.
“When I bought this house I
had no idea what I was getting
into,” she said. “My credit is shot.
I’m $17,000 in arrears, and now
they keep threatening to take my
home. I love my home, and it’s not
like I have anyplace else to go.”
Braxton-Williams said her
struggle to pay her tax bills and
mortgage has given her a new
sense of empathy in her job as
intake coordinator at the home-
less shelter, A Little Bit of Heaven.
“There have been many times,”
she said, “when I thought I might
be in that same situation.”
John Chase and David Kidwell
contributed.
jgrotto@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @Jason Grotto
Search:
Learn about
assessments in
your area
Methodology: How we
analyzed the tax system
By Jason Grotto
Chicago Tribune
To report this story, the
Tribune gathered more than
100 million electronic property
tax records, including data on
assessments, sales and tax bills.
The data covered tax years
2003 through 2015.
The newspaper used the
data to conduct sales ratio
studies, which assessing offi-
cers around the world use to
evaluate the accuracy and fair-
ness of their valuations.
The steps for the studies are
straightforward. Sales ratio
studies are done by dividing
the assessor’s estimated mar-
ket value of properties that
have sold by the sales price.
The sale must have occurred
within one year after the mass
appraisal.
The newspaper first queried
state property tax transfer data
for all sales of residential prop-
erties between 2003 and 2015.
Residential properties include
single-family homes, condo-
miniums and apartment build-
ings with fewer than seven
units. Sales must be reported to
the Illinois Department of Rev-
enue because state and local
governments levy a tax on
property transfers.
The newspaper then elimi-
nated transactions where the
seller did not advertise that the
property was for sale and sales
between relatives or other re-
lated parties, limiting the list to
what’s known as arm’s-length
sales. Foreclosures, auction
sales, judicial sales and short
sales also were tossed out.
Data obtained from the as-
sessor’s office included the
market value and assessed val-
ue of each segment of a proper-
ty. For example, each property
has a land segment and a
building, or improvement, seg-
ment. Properties can also have
garages, additions, etc.
To determine the total value
the assessor’s office used to
assess each property, the news-
paper summed those segments
into one value, accounting
along the way for any special
exemptions, such as the home
improvement exemption.
The assessment data were
then joined with the arm’s-
length sales data using Proper-
ty Identification Numbers, or
PINs. Each property in the
county, including condo units,
has a unique PIN, similar to a
Social Security number.
Because assessments esti-
mate prices as of Jan. 1 of a
given year, the assessor’s data
Assessor rejects findings from
Tribune’s sales ratio studies
For this series, the Tribune
initially sought answers from
the Cook County assessor’s
office in the fall of 2016.
Officials from the office an-
swered questions in an inter-
view with the Tribune. Howev-
er, Assessor Joseph Berrios did
not participate.
Then, in early May, Tribune
reporter Jason Grotto met with
Tom Shaer, deputy assessor for
communications at the asses-
sor’s office, and went over the
facts the Tribune planned to
report. The office declined to
make any other official avail-
able for an interview.
A week and a half later, the
assessor’s office emailed a re-
sponse that erroneously as-
sumed the Tribune arrived at
its findings by running com-
puter programs used to value
property. In fact, it’s not pos-
sible to draw the conclusions
outlined in the stories from
such programs. Rather, the
newspaper conducted sales ra-
tio studies.
Informed of the error, the
assessor’s office (CCAO) sent
an amended response. Below is
the section that most directly
addresses the Tribune’s find-
ings, followed by the Tribune’s
response.
Assessor’s response
CCAO believes the valuation
and uniformity opinions
formed by the Chicago Tribune
are not sufficiently credible.
Fair property assessment is full
B Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, June 11, 2017
Watch: A video
guide to under-
standing your
property tax bill
were matched to sales that
took place within the same tax
year.
If the ratio of the assessor’s
estimated market value to the
actual sales price is above 1, it
indicates the mass appraisal
model overvalued a property,
while a result below 1 means
the property was undervalued.
For example, if the assessor
estimated a value of $200,000
for a home that sold that same
year for $300,000, the ratio
would be about 0.7. A house
valued at $300,000 that sold
for $200,000 would have a
ratio of 1.5.
The results of any mass
appraisal model are never per-
fect. So sales ratio studies also
include measures of fairness
and accuracy.
One of the most important
statistics produced in the stud-
ies is called the coefficient of
dispersion, or COD. The COD
The Tribune gath-
ered more than 100
million electronic
property tax re-
cords for tax years
2003 through 2015.
measures the distribution of
the ratios relative to the medi-
an and produces a score. A
COD score over 15 means there
is a large amount of variation,
which indicates a high degree
of random error in the assess-
ments, or what assessors refer
to as “horizontal” inequities.
Two other important mea-
sures used by assessing offices
— price-related differential, or
PRD, and price-related bias, or
PRB — focus on “vertical”
inequities in a mass appraisal.
Both tests look at whether
differences between ratios are
correlated with differences in
price. For example, the PRB
measures the percentage by
which ratios fall or rise as
prices increase or decrease.
If higher-priced homes are
undervalued and lower-priced
homes overvalued, the assess-
ments are said to have a high
degree of regressivity.
Before running the statistics,
the newspaper trimmed outli-
ers — ratios that were ex-
tremely high or low — to
ensure they did not skew the
results.
In Cook County, properties
are reassessed every three
of varying opinions and no
valuation system is perfect but
the Tribune’s opinions go far
beyond a reasonable range of
what could be drawn from the
sales data it reviewed. In short,
we strongly disagree with the
Tribune’s opinions.
Some mathematic formulas
and practices do not necessari-
ly opine to real market trans-
actions; CCAO believes the
Tribune’s practices and calcu-
lations include those types of
formulas and practices which
are not necessarily appropri-
ate. Mr. Grotto is an accom-
plished journalist but not an
assessment professional nor,
likely, are any of the other
journalists of the Chicago Trib-
une.
With all due respect, the
Chicago Tribune is dismissing
CCAO assessments by creating
its own sales ratio study despite
court decisions disallowing
even the IDOR sales ratio study
to be admitted into evidence in
property tax litigation that
spans decades.
The Tribune’s sales ratio
study cannot be relied on for
value. Separate from CCAO’s
beliefs, not to be dismissed are
those court decisions because
they established that IDOR
sales ratio studies are not
admissible from plaintiffs chal-
lenging valuation. Thus, it is
fair to say, sales ratio studies by
private citizens such as Mr.
Grotto, who are not licensed
appraisers or other assessment
professionals, would also be
15
Interact: Talk with
reporter Jason Grotto
through Facebook Live
on Tuesday at noon.
years, depending on where in
the county a home is located.
To be as fair as possible, the
Tribune cited only the results
of sales ratio studies based on
calendar years in which trien-
nial reassessments took place.
The Tribune also examined
how results differed if condo-
miniums were excluded from
the sales ratio studies.
The assessor uses computer-
based regression models to
value single-family homes and
small apartment buildings. But
a former county official has
testified that condominiums
were valued by tracking sales
prices within an individual
building and prorating the pre-
dicted value of other units.
The Tribune’s analysis was
reviewed by three assessment
experts who provided feed-
back and suggestions on how to
improve it: Richard Almy
served as executive director of
the International Association
of Assessing Officers, a profes-
sional organization that sets
assessment standards, between
1982 and 1990, and later served
as an assessment consultant
and expert witness. Peter
Davis, the ratio study supervi-
sor for the Kansas Department
of Revenue, helped write sales
ratio study standards for the
IAAO. Robert Denne is an
assessment consultant and for-
mer director of research and
technical services at the IAAO.
“I would say the Tribune
conducted a quite rigorous
study, following all of the prin-
ciples and standards of the
IAAO,” said Almy, now retired.
The Tribune also examined
disparities in the system by
analyzing effective tax rates, or
the percentage of a home’s
value that the owner pays in
taxes. To do this, the news-
paper compared property tax
bills with sales data between
2009 and 2015.
Because the effective tax
rate should be about the same
for everyone in a single taxing
district, calculating and com-
paring the rates for communi-
ties within Chicago was
straightforward. The city is the
largest single taxing district in
the county.
To fairly compare effective
tax rates across the county,
which encompasses numerous
taxing districts, the Tribune
used the tiny fraction of prop-
erty tax bills that funds Cook
County government and the
Forest Preserves of Cook
County. Those are the only
taxing districts that cover the
entire county.
rejected by courts.
CCAO does point to the
IDOR Sales Ratio Study to
show that our assessments are
far more accurate than the
Tribune contends. This, how-
ever, is not the same as such
studies being admitted in court
as evidence of value based
upon case law. Inadmissible in
court = not appropriate in the
Tribune’s court of public opin-
ion.
Tribune’s response
The newspaper’s sales ratio
study involved standard stat-
istical calculations used by as-
sessing experts around the
world. The study was vetted by
top experts in the field, who
said it was rigorous and fair.
Studies by the Illinois De-
partment of Revenue, or IDOR,
have also found regressivity
and high error rates in Cook
County.
When reporting market val-
ues, the Tribune relied on
actual sales. The stories do not
use statistical formulas to esti-
mate market value.
The lawsuits referred to by
the assessor’s office involve
specific properties and tax
years, and do not speak to a
broad evaluation of the coun-
ty’s assessment practices.
No state law bars sales ratio
studies from being admitted
into evidence, and such studies
have been admitted into evi-
dence in many cases around
the country for decades.
 Sunday, June 11, 2017

SHOWING OUR WORK

Jason Grotto described his sophisticated methodology in this print story and then
presented an even more detailed explanation of his analysis online.

http://apps.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/cook-county-property-tax-di-
vide/study.html

Methodology: How we analyzed

the tax system
By Jason Grotto

To report this story, the Tribune gathered more than 100 million electronic prop-
erty tax records, including data on assessments, sales and tax bills. The data covered
tax years 2003 through 2015.
The newspaper used the data to conduct sales ratio studies, which assessing of-
ficers around the world use to evaluate the accuracy and fairness of their valuations.
The steps for the studies are straightforward. Sales ratio studies are done by di-
viding the assessor’s estimated market value of properties that have sold by the sales
price. The sale must have occurred within one year after the mass appraisal.
The newspaper first queried state property tax transfer data for all sales of resi-
dential properties between 2003 and 2015. Residential properties include single-
family homes, condominiums and apartment buildings with fewer than seven units.
Sales must be reported to the Illinois Department of Revenue because state and lo-
cal governments levy a tax on property transfers.
The newspaper then eliminated transactions where the seller did not advertise
that the property was for sale and sales between relatives or other related parties,
limiting the list to what’s known as arm’s-length sales. Foreclosures, auction sales,
judicial sales and short sales also were tossed out.
Data obtained from the assessor’s office included the market value and assessed
value of each segment of a property. For example, each property has a land segment
and a building, or improvement, segment. Properties can also have garages, addi-
tions, etc.
To determine the total value the assessor’s office used to assess each property,
the newspaper summed those segments into one value, accounting along the way
for any special exemptions, such as the home improvement exemption.
The assessment data were then joined with the arm’s-length sales data using
Property Identification Numbers, or PINs. Each property in the county, including
condo units, has a unique PIN, similar to a Social Security number.
Because assessments estimate prices as of Jan. 1 of a given year, the assessor’s
data were matched to sales that took place within the same tax year.
If the ratio of the assessor’s estimated market value to the actual sales price is
above 1, it indicates the mass appraisal model overvalued a property, while a result
below 1 means the property was undervalued.
For example, if the assessor estimated a value of $200,000 for a home that sold
that same year for $300,000, the ratio would be about 0.7. A house valued at $300,000
that sold for $200,000 would have a ratio of 1.5.
The results of any mass appraisal model are never perfect. So sales ratio studies
also include measures of fairness and accuracy.
One of the most important statistics produced in the studies is called the coef-
ficient of dispersion, or COD. The COD measures the distribution of the ratios rela-
tive to the median and produces a score. A COD score over 15 means there is a large
amount of variation, which indicates a high degree of random error in the assess-
ments, or what assessors refer to as “horizontal” inequities.
Two other important measures used by assessing offices — price-related differ-
ential, or PRD, and price-related bias, or PRB — focus on “vertical” inequities in a
mass appraisal. Both tests look at whether differences between ratios are correlated
with differences in price. For example, the PRB measures the percentage by which
ratios fall or rise as prices increase or decrease.
If higher-priced homes are undervalued and lower-priced homes overvalued,
the assessments are said to have a high degree of regressivity.
Before running the statistics, the newspaper trimmed outliers — ratios that were
extremely high or low — to ensure they did not skew the results.
In Cook County, properties are reassessed every three years, depending on where
in the county a home is located. To be as fair as possible, the Tribune cited only the
results of sales ratio studies based on calendar years in which triennial reassess-
ments took place.
The Tribune also examined how results differed if condominiums were exclud-
ed from the sales ratio studies.
The assessor uses computer-based regression models to value single-family
homes and small apartment buildings. But a former county official has testified that
condominiums were valued by tracking sales prices within an individual building
and prorating the predicted value of other units.
The Tribune’s analysis was reviewed by three assessment experts who provided
feedback and suggestions on how to improve it: Richard Almy served as executive
director of the International Association of Assessing Officers, a professional orga-
nization that sets assessment standards, between 1982 and 1990, and later served as
an assessment consultant and expert witness. Peter Davis, the ratio study supervi-
sor for the Kansas Department of Revenue, helped write sales ratio study standards
for the IAAO. Robert Denne is an assessment consultant and former director of re-
search and technical services at the IAAO.
“I would say the Tribune conducted a quite rigorous study, following all of the
principles and standards of the IAAO,” said Almy, now retired.
The Tribune also examined disparities in the system by analyzing effective tax
rates, or the percentage of a home’s value that the owner pays in taxes. To do this,
the newspaper compared property tax bills with sales data between 2009 and 2015.
Because the effective tax rate should be about the same for everyone in a single
taxing district, calculating and comparing the rates for communities within Chi-
cago was straightforward. The city is the largest single taxing district in the county.
To fairly compare effective tax rates across the county, which encompasses nu-
merous taxing districts, the Tribune used the tiny fraction of property tax bills that
funds Cook County government and the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Those
are the only taxing districts that cover the entire county.
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TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE

Trump
weighs
Cuba
reversal
President seen
rolling back some
Obama initiatives
By Tracy Wilkinson
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Presi-
dent Donald Trump is ex-
pected to roll back parts of
the historic Obama-era
opening with Cuba, siding
with hawks who oppose
detente and rejecting de-
mands from U.S. businesses
for whom the island is a ripe
potential market.
The decision follows an
inter-agency administration
review of one of President
Barack Obama’s signature
initiatives and would repre-
sent a throwback to policies
that date to the Cold War.
The review is believed to
have been completed some
time ago, with White House
officials waiting for the best
time to release it. Trump is
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE expected to announce the
Joan Clark, strained by property taxes in the overvalued North Lawndale neighborhood, worries she’ll lose her home on the block where she grew up. policy on Friday in Miami,

Appeals system
according to a person famil-
iar with the plan.
The move could dull a
boom in tourism by Ameri-
cans to Cuba and hurt a
burgeoning cottage indus-
try of private enterprise on

worsens inequality
the socialist-ruled island.
And it could allow Russia
and China to more easily
step in to fill the void.
Some Trump supporters
argue, however, that Presi-
dent Raul Castro has failed
to improve human rights or
expand political freedoms
Better-off homeowners more likely to challenge and does not deserve better
relations with the U.S.

assessments, shifting burden to those who don’t

Human rights is “some-
thing that’s very strong to
him. … It’s one of the
reasons that he’s reviewing
By Jason Grotto | Chicago Tribune THE SERIES “Appeals are a good thing,” Thomas Jaco- the Cuba policy,” Trump
Sunday Cook County netty, deputy assessor for valuation and spokesman Sean Spicer said
Along the 2000 block of West Waveland property taxes harmed appeals, said in an interview. “The goal here is in a recent briefing with
Avenue, large maple trees form a canopy over the poor, helped the rich fairness. We made the numbers. We can change reporters. Yet Trump has
pristinely paved streets and sidewalks lined Monday The appeals them.” had a selective attitude
with large homes. process makes assess- There’s just one problem with that argu-
North Center is one of Chicago’s most ments even less fair ment: The Tribune analyzed appeals filed by Turn to Cuba, Page 11
desirable neighborhoods, and home prices on Tuesday An era of errors Cook County homeowners and found the
this block reflect it. In October 2014, one may have expensive con- process makes the property tax system less fair
2,000-square-foot single-family home sold for sequences for taxpayers — not more.
$1.1 million.
Months later, when the Cook County Read the whole series at
Working with the Center for Municipal
Finance at the University of Chicago’s Harris British PM’s
assessor’s office sent out its estimate of the
home’s market value, the number matched
chicagotribune.com/
taxdivide
School of Public Policy, the Tribune examined
appeals on more than 2.7 million residential
position called
perfectly: $1.1 million.
Still, the owners did what so many others do
parcels and found that, in every year from 2009
to 2015, the industry’s statistical measures of
‘untenable’
each year in Cook County. They hired an fairness got worse after the appeals process. As British Prime Minister
attorney to file an appeal and eventually won a reduction from That inequity has placed a financial burden on those who can Theresa May worked to
the Cook County Board of Review, shaving $302,000 off the least afford to pay more, the U. of C. study found. On average, prop up her government,
assessor’s estimated market value. even after appeals, people who own homes in the bottom 25 her fellow Tories were
Under current Assessor Joseph Berrios, the number of percent of values paid nearly $500 more a year in property taxes grumbling that the Conser-
residential appeals filed in Cook County has soared. In 2015 than they would have if the system were fair, the research shows. vative prime minister had
alone, residential property owners filed assessment appeals The reason: Wealthier neighborhoods appealed at much not only bungled the cam-
involving 370,000 parcels, winning reductions 80 percent of the paign but was performing
time. Turn to Property tax, Page 6 poorly in the days after its
surprising conclusion.
Nation & World, Page 10

Experts urge federal oversight of police

Mayor’s examples
in other cities miss
depth of Chicago’s
problems, some say
By Dan Hinkel,
Bill Ruthhart
and Annie Sweeney
Chicago Tribune
In the days since Mayor
Rahm Emanuel backed
away from his commitment
to have a federal judge
oversee police reform in
Chicago, he and his staff
have defended his new ap-
proach by pointing to other
cities that have taken a
similar tack.
Emanuel is pushing for a
deal with President Donald
Trump’s administration to
hire a monitor to oversee
changes without manda-
tory court oversight, and
Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson addresses
officers at an outdoor roll call in Washington Park in May.
the mayor and his staff have
invoked reform efforts in
Washington, Cincinnati and
Las Vegas as evidence that
the plan can work.
“The model we’re look-
ing at — a memo of agree-
ment — is just what Chuck
Ramsey did with Washing-
JOHN J. KIM/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
ton, D.C.,” Emanuel said last
week, naming the former
Washington police chief
who was also once deputy
superintendent in Chicago.
Though the cities the
Emanuel administration
has cited are generally re-
garded as reform successes,
those situations were differ-
ent from Chicago’s in cru- FINISH
cial ways.
Experts and former U.S.
Department of Justice offi-
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Turn to Police, Page 9

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6 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Monday, June 12, 2017
TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE
Appeals system worsens inequality
Property tax, from Page 1
higher rates and regularly re-
ceived significant assessment re-
ductions even though homes in
those areas were more likely to be
undervalued. In poorer neighbor-
hoods, homeowners not only are
more likely to have their proper-
ties overvalued by the assessor,
they are less likely to appeal.
Because of Chicago’s housing
patterns, that means white Chi-
cagoans often benefited at the
expense of the city’s minorities.
Nearly half of the 28 homeown-
ers on the 2000 block of West
Waveland, for example, appealed
their assessments in 2015, and all
but one won reductions, though
the assessor undervalued homes
in the neighborhood by about 15
percent on average, the Tribune
found.
“You can’t blame the people
who appeal,” said U. of C. profes-
sor Christopher Berry. “They are
just responding to the incentives
that the system gives them. But
that system effectively transfers
the tax burden onto those who can
least afford it while giving a break
to those of greater means.
“It’s a textbook example of
institutional racism.”
The Tribune interviewed Jaco-
netty in September, before the U.
of C. study was completed. Con-
tacted more recently for com-
ment, the assessor’s office de-
clined to make Jaconetty available
again. In a written statement, the
office said any homeowner can file
an appeal and officials have
worked hard to inform every
community in the county about
the process.
The office “believes in equal
opportunity and we respect per-
sonal choices to appeal or not
appeal,” the statement said. “Of
course, we have no control of
choices made by free people.”
The system doesn’t just help
those in higher-priced homes. It
has created a lucrative business
for tax attorneys and given a
political boost to Berrios.
In 2015, when appeals hit an
all-time high, records show that
attorneys’ fees from residential
appeals totaled roughly $35 mil-
lion, triple the amount in 2003.
Many of these lawyers have
helped fill the campaign coffers of
Berrios, who is also chairman of
the Cook County Democratic
Party and committeeman of the
31st Ward Democratic Organiza-
tion.
As previously reported in this
series, a Tribune analysis found
that the county’s assessments
have been riddled with errors.
Berrios had a chance to improve
the property tax system by imple-
menting a new computer model
that was designed to produce
more accurate assessments and
reduce regressivity, or the tenden-
cy to overvalue low-priced homes
and undervalue high-priced ones.
But he failed to do so — despite
issuing a press release claiming he
did.
Leaving the current system in
place might work well for some,
but it has hurt residents in al-
ready-struggling minority neigh-
borhoods, where the assessor’s
office regularly overvalued
homes. These owners ended up
paying a disproportionate share of
the county’s property taxes year
after year, and the appeals process
failed to rectify the situation.
Rozalyn Shelton owns a small
stone house on West Cullerton
Street in North Lawndale, where
no trees line the block and the
asphalt is worn and patched. She
was the only person on her block
who appealed her assessment in
2015. Though she won an $11,000
reduction in her home’s estimated
market value, that wasn’t enough
to make up for the assessor’s initial
overvaluation, the Tribune found.
In the end, the property taxes
she paid that year represented
more than 2 percent of her home’s
value. That percentage, known as
the effective tax rate, should be
relatively the same for all, but
Shelton’s was about 60 percent
higher than what people living on
the Waveland block paid, accord-
ing to the Tribune’s analysis.
Shelton and several other
homeowners on Cullerton took
ownership of their parents’ homes
after they passed away. Like many
on her block, she said she has
trouble paying her tax bills.
“We’re trying to honor our
parents by keeping up with the
property,” she said. “But the taxes
are killing us.”
Asking for appeals
Sitting on folding chairs and
clutching their paperwork, about
100 homeowners gathered at the
River Forest Community Center
in February for a workshop on
how to appeal their property tax
assessments.
A few lashed out or muttered
under their breath as officials
from the Cook County assessor’s
office fielded questions. Others
Beth McBride, center, attends a workshop in River Forest on the Cook County property tax appeals process. The assessor encourages appeals.
Only one person on this block of West Cullerton Street filed a tax appeal in 2015, even though the assessor tends to overvalue homes in the area.
stared ahead with befuddled ex-
pressions.
The assessor’s office holds doz-
ens of these workshops every year,
helping drive the number of ap-
peals to levels not seen in any
other large jurisdiction in the
country.
New York City, which has a
larger tax base, saw just 53,000
applications for reductions in
2015. That is a fraction of the
166,000 appeal applications seen
in Cook County, where residential
appeals tripled between 2003 and
2015.
The chances of winning a
reduction increased as well. Ap-
peals brought to the assessor or to
the Board of Review, an elected
three-member panel charged
with ensuring assessments are
fair, resulted in reductions on
more than 292,000 parcels in
2015.
The changes gave homeowners
more than $224 million in tax
savings, the most ever, the Tribune
estimated. Those tax dollars had
to be paid by other property
owners.
Elsewhere in the country, many
jurisdictions are loath to grant
appeals, seeking instead to defend
their valuations. Some states, such
as California, base assessments on
actual sales and adjust those
values based on market trends, a
system that results in far fewer
appeals.
“We would prefer that we get
the value right the first time, so
that taxpayers don’t have to go
through the process of an appeal,”
said Carmen Chu, the assessor in
San Francisco, whose office han-
dled about 4,995 appeals in 2015.
Not so in Cook County, where
the assessor’s office actively en-
courages people to appeal and
provides various tools to make it
easier, including a recently
streamlined appeals process.
In its written statement, the
office said it was proud of the
increase in appeals and pointed
out that most are filed without an
attorney.
“These numbers represent the
good our office does,” the state-
ment quotes Berrios as saying.
“Appeals give all communities a
voice in the assessment process,
and we reach out to them.”
Despite its relatively low pro-
file, the position of Cook County
ALYSSA POINTER/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
assessor is among the most power-
ful offices in the state, closely
affecting the interests of real
estate developers and investors,
law firms and wealthy homeown-
ers. Some of the state’s most
influential political families have
been tied to the office or the
industry of tax attorneys that has
grown up around it; Madigan,
Burke, Hynes and Cullerton are
among the most prominent.
Berrios got his start in politics
as a precinct worker for legendary
Ald. Thomas Keane, who was
convicted in 1974 on federal mail-
fraud and conspiracy charges.
Since then, Berrios has risen
into the upper echelons of Illinois
Democrats. A former state repre-
sentative, he currently serves as
chairman of the Cook County
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Cook County Deputy Assessor Thomas Jaconetty said appeals lead to
fairer valuations but couldn’t point to any evidence supporting that.
University of Chicago professor Christopher Berry, right, says the ap-
peals system represents a “textbook example of institutional racism.”
Democratic Party. In July, he
joined Illinois House Speaker
Michael Madigan at the Demo-
cratic National Convention in
Philadelphia, where they stood
side by side as Illinois delegates
cast their votes.
Berrios controls three active
campaign accounts where he’s
raised more than $5 million since
2009, an unprecedented amount
for an assessor. More than half of it
came from tax attorneys and
related businesses, a Tribune anal-
ysis of campaign data found.
In December 2015, for instance,
state records show Berrios held a
campaign event at the Lux Bar,
spending nearly $5,400 to host a
party largely attended by tax
appeal lawyers. That same month,
attorneys, appraisers and others
NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
ERIN HOOLEY/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
tied to the industry contributed
more than $79,000 to Berrios.
Under Berrios, the Tribune
found, the assessor’s office is
providing more reductions than
ever before.
The Tribune examined appeals
by year and tracked how many
were granted and by which
county entity: the assessor’s office,
the Board of Review or, in some
cases, both. In 2009, the year
before Berrios was elected, 27
percent of successful appeals in-
cluded relief granted by the asses-
sor. In 2015, it was 61 percent.
Jaconetty, who oversees assess-
ments and appeals for Berrios,
said in September that the large
number of appeals is a testament
to the office’s record of “commu-
nity engagement” and argues the
MORE ON THE WEB CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM/TAXDIVIDE
Search:
Learn about
assessments in
your area
A mismatch in property tax appeals
Chicago homeowners are most likely to file appeals if they live downtown or along the north lakefront. But
properties in these areas do not tend to be overvalued in comparison to the county median.
PERCENTAGE OF HOMEOWNERS
WHO APPEALED, 2011-15
<20% 20-39 40-59
Tax appeals rise in Cook County
In 2015, the last time the city of Chicago was reassessed, owners of residential properties filed appeals
involving 370,000 parcels and won reductions 80 percent of the time.
Appeal win Appeal loss
400,000
350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000 *
150,000
100,000
50,000
2003* 2004 2005
Note: Based on Property Identification Numbers (PINs)
SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Illinois Department of Revenue, Tribune analysis
“human element” is essential to
assessing property accurately in
such a complicated and diverse
community.
When pressed on how he
knows that appeals lead to better
valuations, however, Jaconetty
couldn’t point to any data or other
evidence.
In partnering with the U. of C.,
the Tribune applied accepted in-
dustry standards set out by the
International Association of As-
sessing Officers to test Jaconetty’s
claim.
The analysis found that the
assessor’s office violated stand-
ards on regressivity every year
between 2009 and 2015 — and
that both measures got worse, not
better, after the appeal process.
The poorest parts of the county
were hurt, not helped, by appeals.
One reason appeals failed to
make the system more fair is that
the owners of undervalued homes
often received reductions. The U.
of C. found that appeals were filed
for more than half of the underval-
ued homes that sold between
2009 and 2015, and a reduction
was granted in nearly a quarter of
those cases.
No way to win
Joan Clark moved to the 4000
block of West Cullerton Street in
1962, when she was 3 years old.
Like Shelton and a handful of
others, she inherited her parents’
home after they died.
“We all grew up together on
this block,” she said.
The small houses represent the
bulk of their wealth, they told the
Tribune, and some of them are
straining to pay their property
taxes. Clark said she worries about
losing her home.
“I got a letter in the mail saying
if you don’t pay on time, they can
take your house,” she said.
The Tribune’s analysis of as-
sessments found that since 2009
the assessor’s office overvalued
homes in this part of North
Lawndale by about 40 percent. In
fact, a home six doors down from
Clark’s — an exact replica of hers
— sold in 2015 for $75,000, but the
assessor valued both properties
that year at $105,250, 40 percent
higher.
Another identical home two
doors down sold earlier this year
for $53,000. The assessor valued it
at $133,080.
Like most people on her block,
however, Clark has never ap-
pealed her property tax assess-
ment.
“I don’t know anything about
it,” she said. “But we’ve all been
talking about how our homes are
overtaxed.”
In its statement to the Tribune,
the assessor’s office said it has
significantly increased the num-
ber of workshops and other out-
Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Monday, June 12, 2017
Watch: A video
guide to under-
standing your
property tax bill
NUMBER OF YEARS HOMES
WERE OVERVALUED, 2011-15
60-79 80%+ 0 1
* Chicago reassessment years
*
*
2006* 2007 2008 2009* 2010
reach events it holds in low-
income communities.
The office also questioned
whether the home sales cited by
the Tribune were valid, arm’s-
length transactions.
But all of the Tribune’s exam-
ples meet standards set by the
International Association of As-
sessing Officers for arm’s-length
sales. Among other things, the
newspaper checked to make sure
that the homes were advertised
for sale, that the transactions
weren’t foreclosures or other
types of distressed sales, and that
the buyers and sellers weren’t
related.
Even when they appeal, home-
owners in poorer areas can still
end up paying too much in
property taxes because of the way
appeals in Cook County are de-
cided.
Comparing assessments to sim-
ilar homes in the same neighbor-
hood may work if the assessor’s
valuations are generally accurate.
But that isn’t the case here, where
the assessment system has been
both regressive and error-ridden
for years.
For example, though Shelton
won a reduction in 2015 by filing
an appeal, the assessor’s new
valuation of $114,050 was still
much higher than the $75,000
sales price of the similar house
right across the street.
At the same time, people whose
homes were already undervalued
often succeeded in their appeals
because similar homes in the same
neighborhood were undervalued
even more.
The skewed valuations mean
Clark and her neighbors paid
more in taxes as a percentage of
their home’s value than those
living in wealthy city neighbor-
hoods — even though the effective
tax rate should be about the same
for all residents in a taxing district.
It’s a reality the homeowners on
Cullerton Street have long sus-
pected but felt powerless to do
anything about.
Clark said she called the asses-
sor’s office in October to ask how
she could lower her tax bill but
was told there was nothing she
could do until the property is
reassessed in 2018. In fact, accord-
ing to the county’s appeal sched-
ule, Clark could have appealed her
tax bill through January 2017.
“They’re short and nasty when
you call,” she said. “They’re not
willing to do anything to help us.”
The assessor’s office denied
Clark’s allegation, saying they
couldn’t find any evidence that
she had called.
New home, big break
Back on the 2000 block of West
Waveland Avenue, a newly con-
structed luxury home exemplifies
another way in which the county’s
7
Interact: Talk with
reporter Jason Grotto
through Facebook Live
on Tuesday at noon.
2 3 4+
*
*
2011 2012* 2013 2014 2015*
KYLE BENTLE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
appeals process favors the wealthy
— many of whom have access to
attorneys with inside knowledge
of the arcane system.
Before the home was built on
the site of a tear-down property, it
had been listed for sale in 2014 at
more than $2 million. The listing
offered 3,000 square feet of living
space, six bedrooms, three and a
half bathrooms, vaulted ceilings,
top-flight appliances and a fin-
ished basement.
In March 2015, when the house
was nearly complete, the asses-
sor’s office sent out its estimate of
the market value: $1.3 million.
Yet property tax attorney James
Sarnoff, who had agreed to buy
the home, filed an appeal on May 8
on behalf of the developer. And
the assessor’s office granted the
appeal later that year, decreasing
its estimate of the property’s value
by about 30 percent, to $914,482.
Sarnoff is the son of Robert M.
Sarnoff, a longtime property tax
lawyer and former assistant state’s
attorney in the real estate division.
James works at his father’s law
firm, Sarnoff & Baccash, which
focuses on property tax appeals.
The firm, which employs eight
attorneys, filed appeals covering
more than 81,000 residential
parcels between 2003 and 2015.
Robert M. Sarnoff and his firm
have donated $153,000 to cam-
paign funds controlled by Berrios,
campaign data show. James and
his wife gave $8,000.
More than a week before James
Sarnoff filed the appeal, the devel-
oper executed a deed transferring
ownership of the property to the
James B. Sarnoff Trust and Leslie
S. Sarnoff Trust, records show.
State transfer tax stamps show
the sale price was $2.15 million.
In appealing for a reduction
from the assessor, James Sarnoff
argued the property on Waveland
should be treated as a vacant lot
for part of the year because the
home would not be “completed
and occupied until after May 18,
2015.”
For decades, the assessor’s of-
fice has routinely given massive
reductions to the owners of newly
constructed homes based on a
vague provision in the Illinois
property tax code. The law says
homeowners aren’t liable for
newly constructed homes until
the dwellings are “inhabitable”
but provides no standard for
determining when that threshold
is met.
Records obtained from the as-
sessor’s office show officials con-
ducted a field inspection of the
Waveland home in March, two
months before Sarnoff filed the
appeal. The inspection noted that
the exterior construction and roof
were complete and that the home
had central air conditioning and
Turn to Property tax, Next Page
8 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Monday, June 12, 2017

TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE

Appeals system worsens inequality

Joyce Tasch, left, and Katie Rauh attend one of the dozens of workshops the Cook County assessor’s office
holds yearly to teach residents about filing appeals. Wealthier homeowners are much more likely to appeal.
Property tax, from Previous Page
heat, a finished basement and an
enclosed porch.
The appeal included old build-
ing permits and undated pictures
of a demolished home but nothing
showing what the house looked
like at the time of the appeal.
In a statement to the Tribune,
Sarnoff said that it was a routine
appeal and he didn’t receive spe-
cial treatment.
He said he moved into the
home on May 14. “Until the date of
our move, significant items of
work remained incomplete and,
while largely complete, the house
was in fact unfit for occupancy; for
example, the house did not have
operable plumbing or safety rail-
ings on the front steps, and most
lighting fixtures had not been
installed,” he wrote.
According to its website, the
assessor’s office granted the ap-
peal because of “the partial occu-
pancy” of the home.
The key question under state
law, however, is not whether a
home is vacant but whether it is
inhabitable. And though Sarnoff
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
requested a field inspection in his
appeal, the assessor’s office did
not revisit the property before
shaving $400,000 off its already
low valuation.
The assessor’s office wrote in a
statement to the Tribune that
“there was no reason for another
field inspection, two months after
the March 6, 2015 inspection.” It
also stated: “It might be impos-
sible to achieve 100 percent cer-
tainty as to when a structure was
inhabitable.”
The assessor’s office also said
knowing the sale price of the
home would have affected its
estimate of the market value.
“At any time, the homeowner
could have and should have in-
formed CCAO of the pending or
closed sale price,” the statement
said. “That information would
have called for further analysis.”
Had the property been taxed at
a value of $2.15 million over the
full calendar year, the Sarnoffs
would have paid the county about
$39,000 in taxes, the Tribune
estimated. Instead, they paid
around $17,000. The difference
was spread among every other
taxpayer in the city.
In 2016, the assessor’s office
increased the taxable value of the
Sarnoff property back to $1.3
million. But Sarnoff appealed
again, arguing that the price per
square foot was not uniform with
other properties in the area.
This time, the assessor denied
the appeal. But the Board of
Review granted it. That decision
reduced the home’s market value
to $1.2 million.
After the Tribune raised ques-
tions about the 2015 appeal, the
assessor’s office sent inspectors to
the house, where they reported
discovering an additional 1,300
square feet of living space in the
attic.
The assessor said the new
information has led to an increase
in the estimated market value of
the home to $1.8 million. That is
still $300,000 less than what the
Sarnoffs paid for it.
John Chase and David Kidwell
contributed to this report.
jgrotto@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @JasonGrotto
How the Tribune
analyzed appeals
By Jason Grotto
Chicago Tribune
To examine the impact of
appeals on residential assess-
ments in Cook County, the
Tribune partnered with the
University of Chicago’s Cen-
ter for Municipal Finance. A
Tribune reporter worked
with public policy professor
Christopher Berry, the cen-
ter’s academic adviser, to lead
a graduate-level course at U.
of C.’s Harris School for
Public Policy.
Part of the course involved
studying how the appeals
process affected regressivity,
or the overvaluing of low-
priced homes and the under-
valuing of high-priced ones,
between 2003 and 2015.
To do this, the students
calculated the assessment in-
dustry’s most common mea-
sure of regressivity — the
price-related differential, or
PRD — before and after the
appeals process.
U. of C. graduate student
Robert Ross reported the
students’ results in a paper
titled “The Impact of Proper-
ty Tax Appeals on Vertical
Equity in Cook County, IL.” A
Tribune reporter ran the
analysis independently and
arrived at the same conclu-
sions.
The PRD scores rely on
sales ratios, which are calcu-
lated by dividing the asses-
sor’s estimate of a home’s
market value by the sales
price of the home. Only
homes that sell in the same
calendar year as the assess-
ment are included.
If the ratio is above 1, the
assessor overvalued the prop-
erty; a result below 1 means
the property was underval-
ued.
The PRD measures regres-
sivity by looking at whether
differences between sales ra-
tios are correlated with dif-
ferences in price. A PRD
score above 1.03 indicate that
assessments are regressive.
Homeowners in Cook
County can appeal their as-
sessments through the asses-
sor’s office. If they are not
satisfied with the results, they
can take their case to the
county Board of Review, a
three-member panel that is
charged with ensuring as-
sessments are fair. Some
property owners choose to
file their initial appeals with
the board, which also certi-
fies the final assessments that
go on people’s tax bills.
For the analysis, the team
compared the values found in
the assessment notices sent to
homeowners, known as
“first-pass” assessments, to
the final assessments certi-
fied by the Board of Review.
In every year between
2009 and 2015, the PRD
scores for the final assess-
ments were significantly
higher than for the first-pass
assessments, meaning the ap-
peals process made regressiv-
ity worse for residential
homes.
In addition to examining
changes in PRD scores, the
study examined the effective
tax rate, or the percentage of
a home’s value that the
owner pays in property
taxes. The study found that
areas with low-priced homes
had higher effective tax rates
than those in areas with
high-priced homes, even
though they should be rela-
tively the same within taxing
districts.

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Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune Monday, June 12, 2017 Breaking news at chicagotr
Monday, June 12, 2017
TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE
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TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE time to release
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Joan Clark, strained by property taxes in the overvalued North Lawndale neighborhood, worries she’ll lose her home on expected to an
Joan Clark, strained by property taxes in the overvalued North Lawndale neighborhood, worries she’ll lose her home on the block where she grew up. policy on Frida

Appeals system
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TRIBUNE WATCHDOG | THE TAX DIVIDE cans to Cuba
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By Jason Grotto | Chicago Tribune THE SERIES “Appeals are a good thing,” Thomas Jaco- the Cuba poli
Sunday Cook County netty, deputy assessor for valuation and spokesman Sean
Along the 2000 block of West Waveland
Avenue, large maple trees form a canopy over
By Jason Grotto
property taxes harmed
the poor, helped the rich
appeals, said in an interview. “The goal here is
fairness. We made the numbers. We can change
in a recent br
reporters. Yet
pristinely paved streets and sidewalks lined Monday The appeals them.” had a selectiv
with large homes. process makes assess- There’s just one problem with that argu-
Along the 2000 block of West Waveland Avenue, large maple trees form a cano-
North Center is one of Chicago’s most ments even less fair ment: The Tribune analyzed appeals filed by Turn to Cuba, Pa
desirable neighborhoods, and home prices on Tuesday An era of errors Cook County homeowners and found the
py over pristinely paved streets and sidewalks lined with large homes.
this block reflect it. In October 2014, one may have expensive con- process makes the property tax system less fair
2,000-square-foot single-family home sold for sequences for taxpayers — not more.
North Center is one of Chicago’s most desirable neighborhoods, and home prices
$1.1 million. Working with the Center for Municipal
British P
Months later, when the Cook County Read the whole series at Finance at the University of Chicago’s Harris
on this block reflect it. In October 2014, one 2,000-square-foot single-family home
assessor’s office sent out its estimate of the chicagotribune.com/ School of Public Policy, the Tribune examined position
home’s market value, the number matched taxdivide appeals on more than 2.7 million residential
sold for $1.1 million.
perfectly: $1.1 million. parcels and found that, in every year from 2009 ‘untenab
Still, the owners did what so many others do to 2015, the industry’s statistical measures of
Months later, when the Cook County assessor’s office sent out its estimate of the
each year in Cook County. They hired an
attorney to file an appeal and eventually won a reduction from
fairness got worse after the appeals process.
That inequity has placed a financial burden on those who can
As British Prime
Theresa May wo
home’s market value, the number matched perfectly: $1.1 million.
the Cook County Board of Review, shaving $302,000 off the least afford to pay more, the U. of C. study found. On average,
assessor’s estimated market value. even after appeals, people who own homes in the bottom 25
prop up her gov
her fellow Torie
Still, the owners did what so many others do each year in Cook County. They
Under current Assessor Joseph Berrios, the number of percent of values paid nearly $500 more a year in property taxes
residential appeals filed in Cook County has soared. In 2015 than they would have if the system were fair, the research shows.
grumbling that t
vative prime mi
hired an attorney to file an appeal and eventually won a reduction from the Cook
alone, residential property owners filed assessment appeals
involving 370,000 parcels, winning reductions 80 percent of the
The reason: Wealthier neighborhoods appealed at much not only bungled
paign but was p
County Board of Review, shaving $302,000 off the assessor’s estimated market val-
time. Turn to Property tax, Page 6 poorly in the da
surprising conc
ue. Nation & World

Experts urge federal oversight of police

Mayor’s examples those situations were differ-
ent from Chicago’s in cru- FINISH
 Under current Assessor Joseph Berrios, the number of residential appeals filed
in Cook County has soared. In 2015 alone, residential property owners filed assess-
ment appeals involving 370,000 parcels, winning reductions 80 percent of the time.
“Appeals are a good thing,” Thomas Jaconetty, deputy assessor for valuation and
appeals, said in an interview. “The goal here is fairness. We made the numbers. We
can change them.”
There’s just one problem with that argument: The Tribune analyzed appeals
filed by Cook County homeowners and found the process makes the property tax
system less fair — not more.
Working with the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago’s
Harris School of Public Policy, the Tribune examined appeals on more than 2.7 mil-
lion residential parcels and found that, in every year from 2009 to 2015, the indus-
try’s statistical measures of fairness got worse after the appeals process.
That inequity has placed a financial burden on those who can least afford to pay
more, the U. of C. study found. On average, even after appeals, people who own
homes in the bottom 25 percent of values paid nearly $500 more a year in property
taxes than they would have if the system were fair, the research shows.
The reason: Wealthier neighborhoods appealed at much higher rates and regu-
larly received significant assessment reductions even though homes in those areas
were more likely to be undervalued. In poorer neighborhoods, homeowners not
only are more likely to have their properties overvalued by the assessor, they are
less likely to appeal.
Because of Chicago’s housing patterns, that means white Chicagoans often ben-
efited at the expense of the city’s minorities.
Nearly half of the 28 homeowners on the 2000 block of West Waveland, for ex-
ample, appealed their assessments in 2015, and all but one won reductions, though
the assessor undervalued homes in the neighborhood by about 15 percent on aver-
age, the Tribune found.
“You can’t blame the people who appeal,” said U. of C. professor Christopher
Berry. “They are just responding to the incentives that the system gives them. But
that system effectively transfers the tax burden onto those who can least afford it
while giving a break to those of greater means.
“It’s a textbook example of institutional racism.”
The Tribune interviewed Jaconetty in September, before the U. of C. study was
completed. Contacted more recently for comment, the assessor’s office declined to
make Jaconetty available again. In a written statement, the office said any home-
owner can file an appeal and officials have worked hard to inform every community
in the county about the process.
The office “believes in equal opportunity and we respect personal choices to ap-
peal or not appeal,” the statement said. “Of course, we have no control of choices
made by free people.”
The system doesn’t just help those in higher-priced homes. It has created a lucra-
tive business for tax attorneys and given a political boost to Berrios.
In 2015, when appeals hit an all-time high, records show that attorneys’ fees from
residential appeals totaled roughly $35 million, triple the amount in 2003. Many of
these lawyers have helped fill the campaign coffers of Berrios, who is also chairman
of the Cook County Democratic Party and committeeman of the 31st Ward Demo-
cratic Organization.
As previously reported in this series, a Tribune analysis found that the county’s
assessments have been riddled with errors. Berrios had a chance to improve the
property tax system by implementing a new computer model that was designed
to produce more accurate assessments and reduce regressivity, or the tendency to
overvalue low-priced homes and undervalue high-priced ones.
 TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Beth McBride, center, attends a workshop in River Forest on the Cook County property tax appeals process. The asses-
sor encourages appeals.

But he failed to do so — despite issuing a press release claiming he did.

Leaving the current system in place might work well for some, but it has hurt
residents in already-struggling minority neighborhoods, where the assessor’s of-
fice regularly overvalued homes. These owners ended up paying a disproportionate
share of the county’s property taxes year after year, and the appeals process failed to
rectify the situation.
Rozalyn Shelton owns a small stone house on West Cullerton Street in North
Lawndale, where no trees line the block and the asphalt is worn and patched. She
was the only person on her block who appealed her assessment in 2015. Though she
won an $11,000 reduction in her home’s estimated market value, that wasn’t enough
to make up for the assessor’s initial overvaluation, the Tribune found.
In the end, the property taxes she paid that year represented more than 2 per-
cent of her home’s value. That percentage, known as the effective tax rate, should
be relatively the same for all, but Shelton’s was about 60 percent higher than what
people living on the Waveland block paid, according to the Tribune’s analysis.
Shelton and several other homeowners on Cullerton took ownership of their
parents’ homes after they passed away. Like many on her block, she said she has
trouble paying her tax bills.
“We’re trying to honor our parents by keeping up with the property,” she said.
“But the taxes are killing us.”
Asking for appeals
Sitting on folding chairs and clutching their paperwork, about 100 homeowners
gathered at the River Forest Community Center in February for a workshop on how
to appeal their property tax assessments.
A few lashed out or muttered under their breath as officials from the Cook Coun-
ty assessor’s office fielded questions. Others stared ahead with befuddled expres-
sions.
mocratic Organiza-

ly reported in this
une analysis found
unty’s assessments
ddled with errors.
chance to improve Beth McBride, center, attends a workshop in River Forest on the Cook County property tax appeals process. The assessor encourages appeals.
ax system by imple-
w computer model
igned to produce
e assessments and
ivity, or the tenden-
e low-priced homes
e high-priced ones.
d to do so — despite
release claiming he

current system in
ork well for some,
rt residents in al-
ng minority neigh-
ere the assessor’s
arly overvalued
owners ended up
oportionate share of
property taxes year
the appeals process
y the situation.
elton owns a small
on West Cullerton
h Lawndale, where
the block and the
n and patched. She
erson on her block
her assessment in
she won an $11,000
er home’s estimated
that wasn’t enough
the assessor’s initial
the Tribune found.
the property taxes
year represented
rcent of her home’s
rcentage, known as
ax rate, should be
same for all, but
about 60 percent
hat people living on
block paid, accord-
une’s analysis. ALYSSA POINTER/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
ALYSSA POINTER/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

nd several other Onlyone

Only one person
person on block
on this this block ofCullerton
of West West Cullerton Street
Street filed filed aintax
a tax appeal appeal
2015, in 2015,
even though theeven though
assessor tendsthe assessor
to overvalue tends
homes in to
the area.
on Cullerton took overvalue homes in the area.
heir parents’ homes stared ahead with befuddled ex- fair, resulted in reductions on said Carmen Chu, the assessor in assessor is among the most power-
ed away. Like many pressions. more than 292,000 parcels in San Francisco, whose office han- ful offices in the state, closely
she said she has The assessor’s office holds doz- 2015. dled about 4,995 appeals in 2015. affecting the interests of real
her tax bills.
ng to honor our
The assessor’s office holds dozens of these workshops every year, helping drive
ens of these workshops every year,
helping drive the number of ap-
The changes gave homeowners
more than $224 million in tax
Not so in Cook County, where
the assessor’s office actively en-
estate developers and investors,
law firms and wealthy homeown-
eping up with the
said. “But the taxes
the number of appeals to levels not seen in any other large jurisdiction in the coun-
peals to levels not seen in any
other large jurisdiction in the
savings, the most ever, the Tribune
estimated. Those tax dollars had
courages people to appeal and
provides various tools to make it
ers. Some of the state’s most
influential political families have
try.
country.
New York City, which has a
to be paid by other property
owners.
easier, including a recently
streamlined appeals process.
been tied to the office or the
industry of tax attorneys that has
r appeals New York City, which has a larger tax base, saw just 53,000 applications for re-
larger tax base, saw just 53,000
applications for reductions in
Elsewhere in the country, many
jurisdictions are loath to grant
In its written statement, the
office said it was proud of the
grown up around it; Madigan,
Burke, Hynes and Cullerton are
folding chairs and
r paperwork, about
ductions in 2015. That is a fraction of the 166,000 appeal applications seen in Cook
2015. That is a fraction of the
166,000 appeal applications seen
appeals, seeking instead to defend
their valuations. Some states, such
increase in appeals and pointed
out that most are filed without an
among the most prominent.
Berrios got his start in politics
ers gathered at the
Community Center
County, where residential appeals tripled between 2003 and 2015.
in Cook County, where residential
appeals tripled between 2003 and
as California, base assessments on
actual sales and adjust those
attorney.
“These numbers represent the
as a precinct worker for legendary
Ald. Thomas Keane, who was
or a workshop on
their property tax
The chances of winning a reduction increased as well. Appeals brought to the
2015.
The chances of winning a
values based on market trends, a
system that results in far fewer
good our office does,” the state-
ment quotes Berrios as saying.
convicted in 1974 on federal mail-
fraud and conspiracy charges.

ed out or muttered
assessor or to the Board of Review, an elected three-member panel charged with
reduction increased as well. Ap-
peals brought to the assessor or to
appeals.
“We would prefer that we get
“Appeals give all communities a Since then, Berrios has risen
into the upper echelons of Illinois
voice in the assessment process,
breath as officials ensuring assessments are fair, resulted in reductions on more than 292,000 parcels
the Board of Review, an elected the value right the first time, so and we reach out to them.” Democrats. A former state repre-
k County assessor’s three-member panel charged that taxpayers don’t have to go Despite its relatively low pro- sentative, he currently serves as
questions. Others in 2015.
with ensuring assessments are through the process of an appeal,” file, the position of Cook County chairman of the Cook County

The changes gave homeowners more than $224 million in tax savings, the most
ever, the Tribune estimated. Those tax dollars had to be paid by other property
owners.
Elsewhere in the country, many jurisdictions are loath to grant appeals, seeking
instead to defend their valuations. Some states, such as California, base assessments
on actual sales and adjust those values based on market trends, a system that results
in far fewer appeals.
“We would prefer that we get the value right the first time, so that taxpayers
don’t have to go through the process of an appeal,” said Carmen Chu, the assessor in
San Francisco, whose office handled about 4,995 appeals in 2015.
Not so in Cook County, where the assessor’s office actively encourages people to
appeal and provides various tools to make it easier, including a recently streamlined
appeals process.
In its written statement, the office said it was proud of the increase in appeals
and pointed out that most are filed without an attorney.
“These numbers represent the good our office does,” the statement quotes Ber-
rios as saying. “Appeals give all communities a voice in the assessment process, and
we reach out to them.”
Despite its relatively low profile, the position of Cook County assessor is among
 ERIN HOOLEY/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
University of Chicago professor Christopher Berry, right, says the appeals system represents a “textbook example of
institutional racism.”

the most powerful offices in the state, closely affecting the interests of real estate
developers and investors, law firms and wealthy homeowners. Some of the state’s
most influential political families have been tied to the office or the industry of tax
attorneys that has grown up around it; Madigan, Burke, Hynes and Cullerton are
among the most prominent.
Berrios got his start in politics as a precinct worker for legendary Ald. Thomas
Keane, who was convicted in 1974 on federal mail-fraud and conspiracy charges.
Since then, Berrios has risen into the upper echelons of Illinois Democrats. A
former state representative, he currently serves as chairman of the Cook County
Democratic Party. In July, he joined Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan at the
Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where they stood side by side as
Illinois delegates cast their votes.
Berrios controls three active campaign accounts where he’s raised more than $5
million since 2009, an unprecedented amount for an assessor. More than half of
it came from tax attorneys and related businesses, a Tribune analysis of campaign
data found.
In December 2015, for instance, state records show Berrios held a campaign
event at the Lux Bar, spending nearly $5,400 to host a party largely attended by tax
appeal lawyers. That same month, attorneys, appraisers and others tied to the in-
dustry contributed more than $79,000 to Berrios.
Under Berrios, the Tribune found, the assessor’s office is providing more reduc-
tions than ever before.
The Tribune examined appeals by year and tracked how many were granted and
by which county entity: the assessor’s office, the Board of Review or, in some cases,
both. In 2009, the year before Berrios was elected, 27 percent of successful appeals
included relief granted by the assessor. In 2015, it was 61 percent.
Jaconetty, who oversees assessments and appeals for Berrios, said in September
that the large number of appeals is a testament to the office’s record of “community
engagement” and argues the “human element” is essential to assessing property ac-
curately in such a complicated and diverse community.
 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Monday, June 12, 2017 7

MORE ON THE WEB CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM/TAXDIVIDE

Search: Watch: A video Interact: Talk with
Learn about guide to under- reporter Jason Grotto
assessments in standing your through Facebook Live
your area property tax bill on Tuesday at noon.

A mismatch in property tax appeals

Chicago homeowners are most likely to file appeals if they live downtown or along the north lakefront. But
properties in these areas do not tend to be overvalued in comparison to the county median.
PERCENTAGE OF HOMEOWNERS NUMBER OF YEARS HOMES
WHO APPEALED, 2011-15 WERE OVERVALUED, 2011-15

<20% 20-39 40-59 60-79 80%+ 0 1 2 3 4+

Tax appeals rise in Cook County

In 2015, the last time the city of Chicago was reassessed, owners of residential properties filed appeals
involving 370,000 parcels and won reductions 80 percent of the time.

Appeal win Appeal loss * Chicago reassessment years

400,000
*
350,000 *
300,000 *
250,000
200,000 * *
150,000
100,000
50,000

2003* 2004 2005 2006* 2007 2008 2009* 2010 2011 2012* 2013 2014 2015*
Note: Based on Property Identification Numbers (PINs)
SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Illinois Department of Revenue, Tribune analysis KYLE BENTLE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“human element” is essential to
assessing property accurately in
such a complicated and diverse
community.
When pressed on how he
knows that appeals lead to better
valuations, however, Jaconetty
couldn’t point to any data or other
evidence.
In partnering with the U. of C.,
the Tribune applied accepted in-
/CHICAGO TRIBUNE dustry standards set out by the
International Association of As-
sessing Officers to test Jaconetty’s
reach events it holds in low-
income communities.
The office also questioned
whether the home sales cited by
the Tribune were valid, arm’s-
length transactions.
But all of the Tribune’s exam-
ples meet standards set by the
International Association of As-
sessing Officers for arm’s-length
sales. Among other things, the
newspaper checked to make sure
that the homes were advertised
for sale, that the transactions
appeals process favors the wealthy
— many of whom have access to
attorneys with inside knowledge
of the arcane system.
Before the home was built on
the site of a tear-down property, it
had been listed for sale in 2014 at
more than $2 million. The listing
offered 3,000 square feet of living
space, six bedrooms, three and a
half bathrooms, vaulted ceilings,
top-flight appliances and a fin-
ished basement.
In March 2015, when the house
 NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Cook County Deputy Assessor Thomas Jaconetty said appeals lead to fairer valuations but couldn’t point to any evi-
dence supporting that.

When pressed on how he knows that appeals lead to better valuations, however,
Jaconetty couldn’t point to any data or other evidence.
In partnering with the U. of C., the Tribune applied accepted industry standards
set out by the International Association of Assessing Officers to test Jaconetty’s
claim.
The analysis found that the assessor’s office violated standards on regressivity
every year between 2009 and 2015 — and that both measures got worse, not better,
after the appeal process. The poorest parts of the county were hurt, not helped, by
appeals.
One reason appeals failed to make the system more fair is that the owners of un-
dervalued homes often received reductions. The U. of C. found that appeals were
filed for more than half of the undervalued homes that sold between 2009 and 2015,
and a reduction was granted in nearly a quarter of those cases.
No way to win
Joan Clark moved to the 4000 block of West Cullerton Street in 1962, when she
was 3 years old. Like Shelton and a handful of others, she inherited her parents’
home after they died.
“We all grew up together on this block,” she said.
The small houses represent the bulk of their wealth, they told the Tribune, and
some of them are straining to pay their property taxes. Clark said she worries about
losing her home.
“I got a letter in the mail saying if you don’t pay on time, they can take your house,”
she said.
The Tribune’s analysis of assessments found that since 2009 the assessor’s of-
fice overvalued homes in this part of North Lawndale by about 40 percent. In fact,
a home six doors down from Clark’s — an exact replica of hers — sold in 2015 for
$75,000, but the assessor valued both properties that year at $105,250, 40 percent
higher.
Another identical home two doors down sold earlier this year for $53,000. The
assessor valued it at $133,080.
Like most people on her block, however, Clark has never appealed her property
tax assessment.
“I don’t know anything about it,” she said. “But we’ve all been talking about how
our homes are overtaxed.”
In its statement to the Tribune, the assessor’s office said it has significantly in-
creased the number of workshops and other outreach events it holds in low-income
communities.
The office also questioned whether the home sales cited by the Tribune were
valid, arm’s-length transactions.
But all of the Tribune’s examples meet standards set by the International Asso-
ciation of Assessing Officers for arm’s-length sales. Among other things, the news-
paper checked to make sure that the homes were advertised for sale, that the trans-
actions weren’t foreclosures or other types of distressed sales, and that the buyers
and sellers weren’t related.
Even when they appeal, homeowners in poorer areas can still end up paying too
much in property taxes because of the way appeals in Cook County are decided.
Comparing assessments to similar homes in the same neighborhood may work
if the assessor’s valuations are generally accurate. But that isn’t the case here, where
the assessment system has been both regressive and error-ridden for years.
For example, though Shelton won a reduction in 2015 by filing an appeal, the
assessor’s new valuation of $114,050 was still much higher than the $75,000 sales
price of the similar house right across the street.
At the same time, people whose homes were already undervalued often succeed-
ed in their appeals because similar homes in the same neighborhood were under-
valued even more.
The skewed valuations mean Clark and her neighbors paid more in taxes as a
percentage of their home’s value than those living in wealthy city neighborhoods
— even though the effective tax rate should be about the same for all residents in a
taxing district.
It’s a reality the homeowners on Cullerton Street have long suspected but felt
powerless to do anything about.
Clark said she called the assessor’s office in October to ask how she could lower
her tax bill but was told there was nothing she could do until the property is reas-
sessed in 2018. In fact, according to the county’s appeal schedule, Clark could have
appealed her tax bill through January 2017.
“They’re short and nasty when you call,” she said. “They’re not willing to do any-
thing to help us.”
The assessor’s office denied Clark’s allegation, saying they couldn’t find any evi-
dence that she had called.
New home, big break
Back on the 2000 block of West Waveland Avenue, a newly constructed luxury
home exemplifies another way in which the county’s appeals process favors the
wealthy — many of whom have access to attorneys with inside knowledge of the
arcane system.
Before the home was built on the site of a tear-down property, it had been listed
for sale in 2014 at more than $2 million. The listing offered 3,000 square feet of liv-
ing space, six bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, vaulted ceilings, top-flight ap-
pliances and a finished basement.
In March 2015, when the house was nearly complete, the assessor’s office sent
out its estimate of the market value: $1.3 million.
Yet property tax attorney James Sarnoff, who had agreed to buy the home, filed
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Tasch, left, and Katie Rauh attend one of the dozens of workshops the Cook County assessor’s office holds yearly to or the
Joyce Tasch, left,
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discovering an additional 1,300
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State transfer tax stamps show have
example, the house did not have could and price
the sale should was in- attic.
have $2.15 million. lated b
operable plumbing or safety rail- formed CCAO of the pending or The assessor said the new sor’s e
ingsInon appealing forand
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home would
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Had theoccupied
property beenuntil after
taxed at May 18, 2015.”
still $300,000 less than what the calenda
assessor’s office granted the ap- a value of $2.15 million over
For decades, the assessor’s office has routinely given massive reductions the Sarnoffs paid for it. to the ment ar
peal because of “the partial occu- full calendar year, the Sarnoffs If th
owners
pancy” of newly
of the home. constructedwould homes have based
paid theoncounty
a vague about provision
John Chasein theand Illinois
David prop-
Kidwell assesso
The key question under state $39,000 in taxes, the Tribune
erty tax code. The law says homeowners aren’t liable for newly constructed homes contributed to this report. erty; a
law, however, is not whether a estimated. Instead, they paid the pro
untilisthe
home dwellings
vacant are “inhabitable”
but whether but provides
it is around $17,000. no standard
The difference for determining when
jgrotto@chicagotribune.com
that threshold
inhabitable. is met.Sarnoff was spread among every other
And though Twitter @JasonGrotto

Records obtained from the assessor’s office show officials conducted a field in-
spection of the Waveland home in March, two months before Sarnoff filed the ap-
peal. The inspection noted that the exterior construction and roof were complete
and that the home had central air conditioning and heat, a finished basement and
BUY 1 WINDOW GET 1 WIN
an enclosed porch.
The appeal included old building permits and undated pictures of a demolished
home but nothing showing what the house looked like at the time of the appeal.
In a statement
We’re not todiscounting just some
the Tribune, Sarnoff said thatof
it was
oura routine appeal and he
didn’t receive special treatment.
windows; buy one window or patio door, and
get one window or patio door 40% off!1
› EVERY patio door
 He said he moved into the home on May 14. “Until the date of our move, signifi-
cant items of work remained incomplete and, while largely complete, the house was
in fact unfit for occupancy; for example, the house did not have operable plumb-
ing or safety railings on the front steps, and most lighting fixtures had not been in-
stalled,” he wrote.
According to its website, the assessor’s office granted the appeal because of “the
partial occupancy” of the home.
The key question under state law, however, is not whether a home is vacant but
whether it is inhabitable. And though Sarnoff requested a field inspection in his ap-
peal, the assessor’s office did not revisit the property before shaving $400,000 off its
already low valuation.
The assessor’s office wrote in a statement to the Tribune that “there was no rea-
son for another field inspection, two months after the March 6, 2015 inspection.” It
also stated: “It might be impossible to achieve 100 percent certainty as to when a
structure was inhabitable.”
The assessor’s office also said knowing the sale price of the home would have af-
fected its estimate of the market value.
“At any time, the homeowner could have and should have informed CCAO of
the pending or closed sale price,” the statement said. “That information would have
called for further analysis.”
Had the property been taxed at a value of $2.15 million over the full calendar
year, the Sarnoffs would have paid the county about $39,000 in taxes, the Tribune
estimated. Instead, they paid around $17,000. The difference was spread among ev-
ery other taxpayer in the city.
In 2016, the assessor’s office increased the taxable value of the Sarnoff property
back to $1.3 million. But Sarnoff appealed again, arguing that the price per square
foot was not uniform with other properties in the area.
This time, the assessor denied the appeal. But the Board of Review granted it.
That decision reduced the home’s market value to $1.2 million.
After the Tribune raised questions about the 2015 appeal, the assessor’s office
sent inspectors to the house, where they reported discovering an additional 1,300
square feet of living space in the attic.
The assessor said the new information has led to an increase in the estimated
market value of the home to $1.8 million. That is still $300,000 less than what the
Sarnoffs paid for it.

John Chase and David Kidwell contributed to this report.

 D

Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune Tuesday, June 13, 2017 Breaking news at chicagotribune.com

TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE

Sessions
expected
to rebut
Comey
Attorney general
set to testify before
Senate panel
By Joseph Tanfani
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — After
weeks of political tumult,
Attorney General Jeff Ses-
sions will face some of his
former Senate colleagues
Tuesday to answer ques-
tions about his Russian con-
tacts, his role in firing FBI
Director James Comey and
whether he has fully
stepped aside from the Rus-
sia investigations.
Whatever the answers,
the latest Senate intelli-
gence committee hearing
will keep attention focused
on the Trump administra-
tion’s mounting legal and
political troubles amid a
JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE 2009 swirl of Russia-related
Homeowners may have thought they were getting a big tax break under former Cook County Assessor James Houlihan, but that was far from true. probes, difficulties that the

An era of errors
How a bit of computer code fooled taxpayers, flouted legal requirements
By Jason Grotto
Chicago Tribune
For more than a decade, the Cook
County assessor’s office hid a secret
inside the massive computer programs
used to calculate property tax assess-
ments for single-family homes.
It didn’t look like much — just a few
snippets of code amid thousands of
lines — but it created erroneous
valuations for homes throughout the
county, affecting the tax bills sent to
more than 1 million residential proper-
ty owners every year.
What the code did was deceptively
simple: It decreased every estimated
home value in the county by about 40
percent, a troubling practice that
ignored legal requirements set out in
county ordinances.
The artificially low values threw the
property tax system so far out of whack
that it may have violated provisions of
the state constitution. But, shrouded by
an opaque and convoluted assessment
process, these widespread inaccuracies
NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Facing reporters Monday, Assessor
Joseph Berrios disputes Tribune
findings that property assessments
are unfair to the poor. Page 5
THE SERIES
Sunday Cook County property taxes
harmed the poor, helped the rich
Monday The appeals process
makes assessments even less fair
Today An era of errors may have
expensive consequences for taxpayers
Read the whole series at
chicagotribune.com/taxdivide
White House would much
prefer to move beyond.
Sessions, a former sen-
ator from Alabama, was one
of Trump’s earliest and
most vocal supporters dur-
ing the campaign last year.
He is expected to support
the president under oath
and to question Comey’s
version of events, giving the
White House a chance to
were invisible to the average home- push back after days of
owner. harsh headlines.
The Tribune already has revealed Sessions asked to testify
how the county’s assessment system after Comey’s dramatic ap-
under Joseph Berrios has been riddled pearance before the same
with errors that punished the poor panel last Thursday. In it,
while providing breaks to the wealthy. Comey cited Sessions sev-
Now the investigation shows that eral times, including sug-
the assessor’s office knowingly pro- gesting that the FBI had
duced inaccurate property assess- additional concerns about
ments during the long tenure of his the attorney general’s deal-
predecessor, James Houlihan, and ings with Russian author-
even as far back as the 1980s. ities during the 2016 cam-
Houlihan removed the snippets of paign.
code in 2009, a year before he left Comey also made clear
office. But their existence reflects the he did not trust Sessions to
assessor office’s long history of flouting keep the president from
legal requirements and operating out- meddling in the FBI investi-
side professional standards while gation into possible collu-
keeping taxpayers in the dark about sion between the Trump
fundamental problems with assess- campaign and alleged Rus-
ments. It also exposes the far-reaching sian-backed hackers who
consequences when a crucial county sought to influence last
agency is allowed to function with little year’s election, noting that
oversight. he deliberately kept Ses-
sions in the dark about
Turn to Property tax, Page 6 some of Trump’s com-
ments.

Turn to Sessions, Page 9

“It’s a lot of pain. It’s still just like yesterday.”

— Elizabeth Ralyea, 48, a nurse practitioner from Humboldt Park who underwent genital mutilation in Burkina Faso when she was a young girl

Even in U.S., genital cutting a risk for girls

KATHY WILLENS/AP
Is interleague
play killing the
classic rivalry?
Outside of the ancient
feud with the Cardinals,
no rival has provided as
many instant flashbacks
for Cubs fans as the
Mets. But with 20 inter-
league games, old ene-
mies miss chances to
fuel the fire. Paul Sulli-
van, Chicago Sports
■ Warriors roll over
Cavaliers for their sec-
ond NBA title in three
Arrests, awareness
efforts shed light
on illegal tradition
By Alison Bowen
Chicago Tribune
Elizabeth Ralyea remem-
bers people holding her
arms and legs while she
screamed and kicked at the
woman who approached
with a razor blade.
She thinks she was about
6, or maybe 8, and she was
living with her family in the
West African country of
Burkina Faso.
The elder woman began
to cut between Ralyea’s legs,
she recalled. When she
yelled at the woman, her
swat her for being impolite,
she said.
“It’s a lot of pain,” recalls
Ralyea, now 48. “It’s still
just like yesterday.”
Ralyea, a nurse prac-
tioner who lives in Hum-
boldt Park, is one of the
estimated tens of thousands
of women in Illinois who
have undergone or are at
risk for what the U.S. Cen-
ters for Disease Control and
Prevention calls female
genital cutting or mutila-
tion, the removing of all or
parts of a girl’s genitals.
The April arrests of three
people in Michigan, includ-
ing two doctors accused of
coordinating and perform-
ing the procedure on girls
NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

years. Chicago Sports mother grabbed a branch to Turn to Cutting, Page 5 Elizabeth Ralyea is one of thousands in Illinois who have been or are at risk of being cut.

Chicago Weather Center: Complete $1.99 city and suburbs, $2.50 elsewhere
Tom Skilling’s forecast High 93 Low 74
forecast on back page of A+E section 170th year No. 164 © Chicago Tribune

60TH ANNIVERSARY

GOLD COAST ART FAIR

at Grant Park
S H O P A RT N OW AT
.com

JUNE 17 & 18 GoldCoastArtFairChicago.com ART • MUSIC • FOOD • DRINKS

6 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Tuesday, June 13, 2017
TRIBUNE WATCHDOG THE TAX DIVIDE
An era of errors
The severe undervaluing of both commercial and residential properties under James Houlihan ultimately increased the money homeowners paid to the Cook County treasurer’s office.
Property tax, from Page 1
The undervaluing of residential
properties, for instance, may have
given homeowners a false sense
that they were getting a huge
break on their tax bills. In reality,
that was far from the case, because
the computer code undervalued
all homes in pretty much the same
way.
The Tribune also found that for
many years commercial and in-
dustrial properties were underval-
ued even more than residential
ones. If all properties had been
assessed accurately during that
time, homeowners would have
paid less in property taxes, ac-
cording to Tribune estimates.
And the consequences contin-
ue to this day, with taxpayers
potentially paying the price in a
different way. A prominent law
firm has filed lawsuits on behalf of
dozens of properties contending
that Houlihan produced “ficti-
tious” residential valuations be-
tween 2000 and 2008.
The suits seek to claw back as
much as $100 million in tax
dollars, the Tribune estimated —
money that Chicago Public
Schools and other financially
struggling agencies and munici-
palities would have to repay.
Houlihan, now a state lobbyist,
declined to be interviewed for this
story.
In 2008, Houlihan pushed
through sweeping changes to the
assessment system, saying they
would make the system more fair
and transparent. His office also
quietly removed the hidden calcu-
lations.
Within months, the housing
market had collapsed, and home
prices were plummeting. But
when people got their assessment
notices, their values had gone up
dramatically because the snippets
of code had been taken out.
Complaints poured in, but
Houlihan never told the public
about his office’s failure to pro-
duce accurate and lawful valu-
ations.
“It sounds like for years the
assessor’s office was shooting for a
target rather than using legitimate
methods to value property,” said
Ralph Martire, executive director
of the Center for Tax and Budget
Accountability. “If your property
tax system is not properly run, it
has a ripple effect that impacts
every level of government.”
The 40% trick
A former theologian turned
politician, Houlihan was hand-
picked by Cook County Assessor
Thomas Hynes as his successor.
Hynes, a longtime Democratic
power broker, left office in 1997
after serving for 18 years.
Before Houlihan took over, the
assessor’s office was already ig-
noring county laws by undervalu-
ing homes across the board, state
records show.
At the time, the assessment
level for residential properties in
Cook County was set at 16 percent.
This means that the total assessed
value of all homes in the county
should have been equal to about 16
percent of their total market value.
But that was not the case.
Studies from the Illinois Depart-
ment of Revenue that compare
assessments to actual sale prices
show that at least as far back as
1994, the earliest year of available
records, the median assessment
level for residential properties in
the county had been much lower:
less than 10 percent.
How could that be happening
when homeowners’ tax bills
stated in black and white that
their property was being assessed
at 16 percent?
The answer lies with an earlier
step in the process, in which the
assessor’s office applied what’s
known as an “adjustment factor.”
This adjustment purposefully
lowered the market value of each
home, before the assessment level
was applied.
The Tribune figured this out by
combing through thousands of
lines of computer code used to
value residential properties dur-
ing the Houlihan era.
The programs, known as he-
donic regression models, take
characteristics of homes that sold
in the prior three or five years and
compute values for each one — the
value per bathroom, per square
foot and so on. The models then
use those values to estimate mar-
ket prices for every home.
But in this case, snippets of
code were tacked onto the end
that dramatically decreased those
estimates by about 40 percent. So
for example, a home that was
valued at $326,530 would be
reduced to about $200,000.
The county then multiplied
that new, lower value by the legal
assessment level of 16 percent. To
Gap narrowed, but properties still undervalued
When James Houlihan became assessor in 1997, the gap between the assessment levels for commercial and
residential properties was wider than the state constitution allowed. His office addressed that issue by
driving down the level for commercial parcels.
PROPERTY ASSESSMENT LEVEL BY YEAR
40%
Legally required assessment level for commercial properties
30%
20%
Legally required assessment level for residential properties
10%
1994 1995 1996 1997
SOURCE: Illinois Department of Revenue
use the last example, 16 percent of
$200,000 is $32,000. And that is
roughly 10 percent of the home’s
market value.
Applying this mathematical
wizardry to all of the county’s
homes is what set the county’s de
facto assessment level at about 10
percent, in apparent violation of
the law.
Figuring out why or when this
practice started is difficult to
discern. But the man who built the
computer models, John Horbas,
has testified that an adjustment
factor was part of the valuation
process for more than a decade
before Houlihan took office.
“I know for sure from 1984 on
there was an adjustment factor,”
Horbas said in an October 2015
deposition.
When Houlihan inherited that
problem, he took on another one
as well.
Constitutional crisis
Property valuations in Cook
County are handled differently
from anywhere else in the state,
thanks to a complicated system
that makes it difficult for most
taxpayers to fully understand how
their taxes are calculated.
Unlike the other 101 counties in
Illinois, Cook County assesses the
value of property at different
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
levels depending on their use.
Known as classification, the sys-
tem is meant to give homeowners
a break on taxes.
To shift more of the burden
onto businesses, the assessment
level for residential properties has
always been lower than the levels
for commercial and industrial
properties.
Still, the categories can’t be too
different. Under the state constitu-
tion, no one class of property can
be assessed at a level that exceeds
2.5 times the level of any other.
On the surface, Cook County
met that standard under Houlihan
and Hynes.
The reality, however, was differ-
ent — thanks to the county’s
practice of undervaluing residen-
tial properties.
State revenue department stud-
ies show that from at least 1994 to
2003, the median assessment level
for commercial properties in
Cook County was more than 2.5
times greater than the roughly 10
percent median assessment level
for residential homes.
Most taxpayers would never
know any of this. But more than a
decade ago, some influential law-
yers started suing.
The law firm of O’Keefe, Lyons
& Hynes was well positioned to
know what was wrong. Thomas
Lyons was a former deputy asses-
Commercial in 2007:
16.53%
Residential in 2007:
9.04%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
sor and state senator who pushed
to allow Cook County to continue
using classification during the 1970
state constitutional convention.
Robert Hynes was the brother of
longtime assessor Hynes. And lead
attorney Mark Davis once headed
the tax division for the Cook
County state’s attorney’s office.
Before joining the firm, Davis
helped write changes to the state’s
property tax code in a way that
made it easier to challenge assess-
ments in circuit court. Prior to the
new law, taxpayers had to prove
their assessments were so faulty as
to suggest the assessor targeted
them specifically, an impractically
high burden of proof.
Since 2000, O’Keefe, Lyons &
Hynes has filed suits involving
dozens of commercial, industrial
and residential properties, arguing
that the assessor’s office trampled
state and federal constitutional
provisions between 2000 and
2008 — not just the 2.5 rule, but
also provisions that guarantee
equal protection under the law.
Most of the suits are still being
argued in county court.
The firm declined requests for
an interview but issued a state-
ment to the Tribune: “Discrimi-
natory assessments and opaque
methodologies destroy the fair-
ness of the property tax system for
all taxpayers — not just the
Under Joseph Berrios, who became assessor in 2010, property assessments have been plagued by errors and
have systematically hurt homeowners living in poorer areas to the benefit of those in more affluent ones.
plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuits.
Instead of opposing the rights of
taxpayers, agencies of local gov-
ernment should work to remedy
past discrimination and to ensure
a future system that is equitable.”
The foundation of the O’Keefe
suits is a study by their expert
witness, University of Illinois
economics professor Daniel
McMillen. He found that median
assessment levels for all classes of
property in Cook County were far
lower than county ordinances
dictated at the time.
Many findings in the McMillen
study mirror those from the Trib-
une’s analysis as well as from
studies conducted by the state
Department of Revenue. In an
affidavit filed in September, for
instance, McMillen independ-
ently cited the same computer
code that the Tribune had identi-
fied as the cause of low residential
assessments.
When Houlihan took charge of
the assessor’s office in 1997, those
with deep knowledge of the prop-
erty tax system would have under-
stood that the ongoing drastic
undervaluation of residential
homes left the county vulnerable
to legal challenges.
One way to fix that problem
would have been to raise residen-
tial assessments to legal levels.
But that would have increased
How low assessments turned into higher property tax bills
Under former Cook County
Assessor James Houlihan,
all valuations of residential
properties were reduced by
about 40 percent. But
people weren’t necessarily
getting a break on their tax
bills. In fact, many home-
owners ended up paying
more than they should
have, according to a
Tribune analysis. How can
that be? It all depends on
the system as a whole.
The computer
programs used under
Houlihan would have
decreased the home’s
value by 40 percent.
The state calculates
and applies a
multiplier in each
county to make sure
the county’s
assessments meet
requirements set by
state law. In most
counties, the
multiplier is close to 1.
Taxpayers can qualify
for exemptions that
lower a home’s
equalized assessed
value. The most
common is the
homeowner’s exemp-
tion, which shaves off
about $7,000.
The tax rate is derived
by dividing the
amount of money
that government
agencies need to
operate — called the
levy — by the taxable
value of property.
So in 2008, you would have paid about $500 more in property taxes for your hypothetical
home, even though the assessor’s office undervalued it. These systematic undervaluations
ended in 2009. But the Tribune has uncovered new disparities in the system since then, ones
that punish the poor while giving the wealthy a break.
SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Cook County treasurer’s office, Cook County clerk’s office, Tribune reporting
many people’s taxes, and that is
not what Houlihan chose to do.
Instead, records show, the as-
sessor’s office left the residential
level where it was — at 10 percent
— and began taking measures that
reduced the levels for commercial
and industrial properties.
Over the next decade, the medi-
an commercial and industrial as-
sessment levels in Cook County
fell by more than a third. In 2007,
the median level for commercial
property was about 17 percent —
less than half of what it was
supposed to be, according to state
studies.
Internal studies unearthed in
the O’Keefe lawsuits show the
assessor’s office knew about the
low valuations. One report, titled
“The Effects of the Decline in
Commercial Assessment,” de-
tailed a significant drop in com-
mercial assessment levels be-
tween 2003 and 2004.
The Tribune was able to ana-
lyze how the assessor’s office
valued residential properties by
examining records and formulas
obtained through a freedom of
information request, but Berrios
has declined to release similar
information about how commer-
cial and industrial properties are
assessed. He argues that the of-
fice’s valuations are a deliberative
process protected under the Free-
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Learn about
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Let’s say you bought a home
in Chicago in 2008
for $326,530.
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dom of Information Act.
In response, the Tribune filed a
lawsuit and won a ruling in its
favor from Cook County Circuit
Court Judge Neil H. Cohen. “I
think it leads to an absurd result if
anyone were to accept this argu-
ment. I think it’s actually a viola-
tion of trust that the public
officials are given by the people,”
Cohen said in court.
Despite Cohen’s sharp rebuke,
the assessor’s office is appealing
that decision, at taxpayer expense.
The lower assessments for
commercial and industrial prop-
erties solved a problem for the
assessor’s office — the county was
no longer valuing one category at a
level more than 2.5 times higher
than another.
But the changes meant many
homeowners were paying more in
taxes.
Paying the price
To gauge the impact of the
county’s questionable practices on
property owners’ pocketbooks,
the Tribune studied the 2008 tax
year.
That year, homeowners’ prop-
erties were still being dramatically
undervalued, at 10 percent. The
tricky snippet of computer code —
the adjustment factor — was still
in place. Commercial and indus-
Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Watch: A video
guide to under-
standing your
property tax bill
A fair assessment
would have estimated
the value of the home
to be around the
actual sales price.
In Cook County, the
multiplier is always
higher than 1 because
of its unique classifica-
tion system. But in
2008, the undervaluing
of so many properties
drove the multiplier
even higher than it
would have been
otherwise.
The exemption is the
same amount of
money, regardless of a
home’s value.
The tax rate would
have been less if
properties were not
being systematical-
ly undervalued. The
larger the value of
all properties, the
lower the tax rate.
trial properties were being under-
valued more than ever.
All that undervaluing meant
that, in 2008, the assessor’s office
shaved tens of billions of dollars
from the total assessed value of
the county, the Tribune estimated.
The result was a cascading series
of problems that increased the tax
burden for residential property
owners.
The reasons lie with two factors
in property tax bills: the multiplier
and the tax rate.
The multiplier comes from a
provision in state law requiring
that the total market value of all
property in every county be as-
sessed at 331⁄3 percent. The state
revenue department compares as-
sessments to actual sales to test
whether counties reach that num-
ber.
If the assessment level is less
than 331⁄3 percent, the state ap-
plies a multiplier, known as an
“equalization factor,” to the as-
sessed value of every property in
the county to bring it up to the
statutory level. The result is called
the equalized assessed value. Tax-
payers can see these figures
spelled out on their bills.
In nearly every other county in
Illinois, the multiplier is always
around 1. But because the asses-
sor’s office was depressing values
across Cook County, the multipli-
er for Cook in 2008 was nearly 3.
Depressing property values
also can increase tax rates, which
are derived by dividing a taxing
district’s total equalized assessed
value into the tax levy — the total
amount of money that local gov-
ernment units say they need to
operate.
In Cook County, the bigger
multiplier and higher tax rates
were applied to all properties. But
because commercial and indus-
trial properties were undervalued
more than residential properties,
homeowners ended up paying a
bigger share.
The owner of a $326,000 home
in Chicago that was undervalued
at $200,000 in 2008 would have
paid about $500 less in taxes if all
property had been valued accu-
rately, the Tribune estimated. In
towns where tax rates are far
higher than Chicago’s, the
amounts would have been much
larger.
In fact, an internal study dis-
closed in discovery for the
O’Keefe lawsuit shows that Houli-
7
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reporter Jason Grotto
through Facebook Live
on Tuesday at noon.
han knew this was happening. “In
1996, commercial property held a
disproportionate amount of the
assessed value distribution. By
2006, the declining commercial
ratio reversed the situation, caus-
ing residential to have the dispro-
portionate amount of assessed
value,” the study concluded.
In April 2008, Houlihan stood
before the City Club of Chicago to
propose a major overhaul of the
county’s assessment system.
Among other changes, it stream-
lined the classification system in
Cook County by reducing the
number of categories.
Houlihan’s proposal, which the
County Board approved five
months later after one day of
debate, also set a new legal
assessment level for homes: 10
percent. In effect, he changed the
law to align with reality.
Houlihan vowed the changes
would “result in additional clarity,
simplicity and uniformity.”
“Transparency can’t just be a
buzzword,” he said. “We need to
strive for transparency in every-
thing we do.”
Yet Houlihan never came clean
about the adjustment factor hid-
den in the snippets of code — or
the fact that Cook County had
been quietly assessing residential
property at about 10 percent for
many years.
Then a crisis arrived, creating
problems that couldn’t be hidden.
New leadership
When the U.S. housing market
collapsed, it sent home prices
plunging. But because Houlihan
had removed the adjustment fac-
tor, people were seeing steep
increases in the assessor’s esti-
mates of market value.
Confusion and resentment en-
sued, throwing the entire system
into disarray.
In January 2010, the Cook
County Board of Review, a three-
member panel charged with en-
suring assessments are fair, sent
Houlihan a stern letter requesting
an explanation.
“These increases in market
value posted by your office defy a
significant declining trend in vir-
tually every facet of the current
real estate market,” the letter said.
Houlihan, who had announced
the previous summer that he
would not seek re-election, also
was called before the Board of
Review to testify about his assess-
ment practices.
Among those sitting on the
Board of Review at the time was
Berrios, head of the Cook County
Democratic Party and a close ally
of Illinois House Speaker Michael
Madigan, who makes his living as
a property tax attorney.
Less than a year later, Berrios
would be elected assessor, defeat-
ing independent candidate For-
rest Claypool and a Republican
despite a slew of news stories
highlighting Berrios’ political ties.
“Do not count our organization
out of anything,” Berrios said in
his victory speech.
Berrios has now been in office
for more than six years. Under his
watch, the Tribune found, assess-
ments have been plagued by
errors and have systematically
hurt homeowners living in poorer
areas while giving many people
living in affluent neighborhoods
an unsanctioned tax break.
He also is now embroiled in the
lawsuits filed by O’Keefe, Lyons &
Hynes.
The suits are still pending after
more than a decade, in part
because the assessor’s office has
yet to deliver documents sought in
a 2009 subpoena. In recent court
filings, plaintiffs accused the office
under Houlihan of purposefully
destroying paper and electronic
records relevant to the case, a
contention the county denies.
The law firm is seeking refunds
of tens of millions of tax dollars
sent years ago to school districts,
municipalities and other govern-
ment agencies across the county,
many of which are already strug-
gling with budget issues.
With so much money on the
line, local governments and agen-
cies are standing with the county
in defense of the assessor’s office.
Among them are the city of
Chicago and Chicago Public
Schools, which could owe tens of
millions of dollars in refunds if the
suits prevail.
Circuit Court Judge Alfred J.
Paul has refused numerous re-
quests to throw out the lawsuits.
Chicago as well as a few smaller
municipalities and school districts
have already settled some of the
cases, refunding millions in erro-
neous taxes.
David Kidwell contributed. Stu-
dents from Northwestern Universi-
ty’s Medill School of Journalism,
Media, Integrated Marketing Com-
munications also assisted as part of
investigative reporting classes.
jgrotto@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @JasonGrotto
 Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune
Tuesday, JuneTuesday,
13, 2017June 13, 2017 Breaking news at chicagotri

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How a bit of computer code fooled taxpayers, flouted legal requirements version of events
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How a bit of computer code fooled were

By Jason Grotto
Chicago Tribune taxpayers,
invisible to the average home-
owner.
The Tribune already has revealed
push back afte
harsh headlines.
Sessions aske
For more than a decade, the Cook flouted
County assessor’s office hid a secret
legal requirements
how the county’s assessment system
under Joseph Berrios has been riddled
after Comey’s d
pearance before
inside the massive computer programs with errors that punished the poor panel last Thur
used to calculate property tax assess- while providing breaks to the wealthy. Comey cited Se
ments for single-family homes. By Jason Grotto Now the investigation shows that eral times, incl
It didn’t look like much — just a few the assessor’s office knowingly pro- gesting that th
snippets of code amid thousands of duced inaccurate property assess- additional conc
For more than a decade, the Cook County assessor’s office hid a secret inside the
lines — but it created erroneous
valuations for homes throughout the NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
ments during the long tenure of his
predecessor, James Houlihan, and
the attorney gen
ings with Russi
massive computer programs used
county, affecting the tax bills sent to
to calculate property tax assessments for single-
Facing reporters Monday, Assessor
more than 1 million residential proper-
Joseph Berrios disputes Tribune
even as far back as the 1980s.
Houlihan removed the snippets of
ities during the
paign.
family homes.
ty owners every year.
What the code did was deceptively
findings that property assessments
are unfair to the poor. Page 5
code in 2009, a year before he left
office. But their existence reflects the
Comey also m
he did not trust
It didn’t look like much — just a few
simple: It decreased every estimated
home value in the county by about 40 THEsnippets
SERIES of code amid thousands of lines —
assessor office’s long history of flouting
legal requirements and operating out-
keep the presi
meddling in the F
but it created erroneous valuations
percent, a troubling practice that
ignored legal requirements set out in forthe homes throughout
Sunday Cook County property taxes
harmed poor, helped the rich the county, affecting the
side professional standards while
keeping taxpayers in the dark about
gation into pos
sion between t
tax bills sent to more than 1 million
county ordinances.
The artificially low values threw themakesresidential
Monday The appeals process
assessments even lessproperty
fair owners every year.
fundamental problems with assess-
ments. It also exposes the far-reaching
campaign and a
sian-backed ha
property tax system so far out of whack consequences when a crucial county sought to infl
What the code did was deceptively
that it may have violated provisions of simple:
expensive consequences It decreased every estimated home
Today An era of errors may have
for taxpayers agency is allowed to function with little year’s election,
the state constitution. But, shrouded by oversight. he deliberately
value in the county by about 40 percent,
an opaque and convoluted assessment a troubling
Read the whole series at practice that ignored legal re- sions in the d
process, these widespread inaccuracies some of Trum
quirements set out in county ordinances. chicagotribune.com/taxdivide Turn to Property tax, Page 6
ments.
The artificially low values threw the property tax system so far out of whack that Turn to Sessions
it may have violated provisions of the state constitution. But, shrouded by an opaque
and convoluted assessment
“It’s a lot of pain.process, these
It’s still justwidespread
like yesterday.” inaccuracies were invisible
to the average homeowner.
— Elizabeth Ralyea, 48, a nurse practitioner from Humboldt Park who underwent genital mutilation in Burkina Faso when she was a young gi

Even in U.S., genital cutting a risk for gi

The Tribune already has revealed how the county’s assessment system under
Joseph Berrios has been riddled with errors that punished the poor while providing
Arrests, awareness swat her for being impolite,
she said.
KATHY WILLENS/AP efforts shed light “It’s a lot of pain,” recalls
on illegal tradition Ralyea, now 48. “It’s still
Is interleague just like yesterday.”
By Alison Bowen Ralyea, a nurse prac-
play killing the Chicago Tribune tioner who lives in Hum-
classic rivalry? boldt Park, is one of the
breaks to the wealthy.
Now the investigation shows that the assessor’s office knowingly produced inac-
curate property assessments during the long tenure of his predecessor, James Hou-
lihan, and even as far back as the 1980s.
Houlihan removed the snippets of code in 2009, a year before he left office. But
their existence reflects the assessor office’s long history of flouting legal require-
ments and operating outside professional standards while keeping taxpayers in the
dark about fundamental problems with assessments. It also exposes the far-reach-
ing consequences when a crucial county agency is allowed to function with little
oversight.
The undervaluing of residential properties, for instance, may have given home-
owners a false sense that they were getting a huge break on their tax bills. In reality,
that was far from the case, because the computer code undervalued all homes in
pretty much the same way.
The Tribune also found that for many years commercial and industrial proper-
ties were undervalued even more than residential ones. If all properties had been
assessed accurately during that time, homeowners would have paid less in property
taxes, according to Tribune estimates.
And the consequences continue to this day, with taxpayers potentially paying the
price in a different way. A prominent law firm has filed lawsuits on behalf of dozens
of properties contending that Houlihan produced “fictitious” residential valuations
between 2000 and 2008.
The suits seek to claw back as much as $100 million in tax dollars, the Tribune
estimated — money that Chicago Public Schools and other financially struggling
agencies and municipalities would have to repay.
Houlihan, now a state lobbyist, declined to be interviewed for this story.
In 2008, Houlihan pushed through sweeping changes to the assessment system,
saying they would make the system more fair and transparent. His office also qui-
etly removed the hidden calculations.
Within months, the housing market had collapsed, and home prices were plum-
meting. But when people got their assessment notices, their values had gone up dra-
matically because the snippets of code had been taken out.
Complaints poured in, but Houlihan never told the public about his office’s fail-
ure to produce accurate and lawful valuations.
“It sounds like for years the assessor’s office was shooting for a target rather than
using legitimate methods to value property,” said Ralph Martire, executive director
of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. “If your property tax system is not
properly run, it has a ripple effect that impacts every level of government.”
The 40% trick
A former theologian turned politician, Houlihan was hand-picked by Cook
County Assessor Thomas Hynes as his successor. Hynes, a longtime Democratic
power broker, left office in 1997 after serving for 18 years.
Before Houlihan took over, the assessor’s office was already ignoring county laws
by undervaluing homes across the board, state records show.
At the time, the assessment level for residential properties in Cook County was
set at 16 percent. This means that the total assessed value of all homes in the county
should have been equal to about 16 percent of their total market value.
But that was not the case. Studies from the Illinois Department of Revenue that
compare assessments to actual sale prices show that at least as far back as 1994, the
earliest year of available records, the median assessment level for residential prop-
erties in the county had been much lower: less than 10 percent.
How could that be happening when homeowners’ tax bills stated in black and
An era of errors
The severe undervaluing of both commercial and residential properties under James Houlihan ultimately increased the money homeowners paid to the Cook County treasurer’s office.
The severe undervaluing of both commercial and residential properties under James Houlihan ultimately increased the
Property tax, from Page 1
money homeowners Thepaid
40% trick
to the CookGap narrowed,
The undervaluing of residential
properties, for instance, may have
given homeowners a false sense
that they were getting a huge
white that their property was being assessed at 16 percent?
break on their tax bills. In reality,
that was far from the case, because
the computer code undervalued
all homes in pretty much the same
The answer lies with an earlier step in the process, in which the assessor’s office
way.
The Tribune also found that for
many years commercial and in-
applied what’s known as an “adjustment factor.” This adjustment purposefully low-
dustrial properties were underval-
ued even more than residential
ones. If all properties had been
ered the market value of each home, before the assessment level was applied.
assessed accurately during that
time, homeowners would have
paid less in property taxes, ac-
The Tribune figured this out by combing through thousands of lines of computer
cording to Tribune estimates.
And the consequences contin-
ue to this day, with taxpayers
potentially paying the price in a
code used to value residential properties during the Houlihan era.
different way. A prominent law
firm has filed lawsuits on behalf of
dozens of properties contending
The programs, known as hedonic regression models, take characteristics of
that Houlihan produced “ficti-
tious” residential valuations be-
tween 2000 and 2008.
homes that sold in the prior three or five years and compute values for each one
The suits seek to claw back as
much as $100 million in tax
dollars, the Tribune estimated —
— the value per bathroom, per square foot and so on. The models then use those
money that Chicago Public
Schools and other financially
struggling agencies and munici-
palities would have to repay.
values to estimate market prices for every home.
Houlihan, now a state lobbyist,
declined to be interviewed for this
story.
But in this case, snippets of code were tacked onto the end that dramatically de-
In 2008, Houlihan pushed
through sweeping changes to the
assessment system, saying they
creased those estimates by about 40 percent. So for example, a home that was val-
would make the system more fair
and transparent. His office also
quietly removed the hidden calcu-
ued at $326,530 would be reduced to about $200,000.
lations.
Within months, the housing
market had collapsed, and home
prices were plummeting. But
The county then multiplied that new, lower value by the legal assessment level
when people got their assessment
notices, their values had gone up
dramatically because the snippets
of 16 percent. To use the last example, 16 percent of $200,000 is $32,000. And that is
of code had been taken out.
Complaints poured in, but
Houlihan never told the public
roughly 10 percent of the home’s
Constitutionalmarket value.
about his office’s failure to pro-
duce accurate and lawful valu-
ations.
Applying this mathematical wizardry to all of the county’s homes is what set the
“It sounds like for years the
assessor’s office was shooting for a
target rather than using legitimate
methods to value property,” said
county’s de facto assessment level at about 10 percent, in apparent violation of the
Ralph Martire, executive director
of the Center for Tax and Budget
Accountability. “If your property
law.
tax system is not properly run, it
has a ripple effect that impacts
every level of government.”
Figuring out why or when this practice started is difficult to discern. But the man
who built the computer models, John Horbas, has testified that an adjustment fac-
tor was part of the valuation process for more than a decade before Houlihan took
office.
“I know for sure from 1984 on there was an adjustment factor,” Horbas said in an
October 2015 deposition.
When Houlihan inherited that problem, he took on another one as well.
Constitutional crisis
Property valuations in Cook County are handled differently from anywhere else
in the state, thanks to a complicated system that makes it difficult for most taxpay-
County but properties
treasurer’s office. still undervalued
A former theologian turned
politician, Houlihan was hand-
picked by Cook County Assessor
Thomas Hynes as his successor.
Hynes, a longtime Democratic
power broker, left office in 1997
after serving for 18 years.
Before Houlihan took over, the
assessor’s office was already ig-
noring county laws by undervalu-
ing homes across the board, state
records show.
At the time, the assessment
level for residential properties in
Cook County was set at 16 percent.
This means that the total assessed
value of all homes in the county
should have been equal to about 16
percent of their total market value.
But that was not the case.
Studies from the Illinois Depart-
ment of Revenue that compare
assessments to actual sale prices
show that at least as far back as
1994, the earliest year of available
records, the median assessment
level for residential properties in
the county had been much lower:
less than 10 percent.
How could that be happening
when homeowners’ tax bills
stated in black and white that
their property was being assessed
at 16 percent?
The answer lies with an earlier
step in the process, in which the
assessor’s office applied what’s
known as an “adjustment factor.”
This adjustment purposefully
lowered the market value of each
home, before the assessment level
was applied.
The Tribune figured this out by
combing through thousands of
lines of computer code used to
value residential properties dur-
ing the Houlihan era.
The programs, known as he-
donic regression models, take
characteristics of homes that sold
in the prior three or five years and
compute values for each one — the
value per bathroom, per square
foot and so on. The models then
crisis
use those values to estimate mar-
ket prices for every home.
But in this case, snippets of
code were tacked onto the end
that dramatically decreased those
estimates by about 40 percent. So
for example, a home that was
valued at $326,530 would be
reduced to about $200,000.
The county then multiplied
that new, lower value by the legal
assessment level of 16 percent. To
When James Houlihan became assessor in 1997, the gap between the assessment levels for commercial and
residential properties was wider than the state constitution allowed. His office addressed that issue by
driving down the level for commercial parcels.
PROPERTY ASSESSMENT LEVEL BY YEAR
40%
Legally required assessment level for commercial properties
30%
20%
Legally required assessment level for residential properties
10%
1994 1995 1996
SOURCE: Illinois Department of Revenue
use the last example, 16 percent of
$200,000 is $32,000. And that is
roughly 10 percent of the home’s
market value.
Applying this mathematical
wizardry to all of the county’s
homes is what set the county’s de
facto assessment level at about 10
percent, in apparent violation of
the law.
Figuring out why or when this
practice started is difficult to
discern. But the man who built the
computer models, John Horbas,
has testified that an adjustment
factor was part of the valuation
process for more than a decade
before Houlihan took office.
“I know for sure from 1984 on
there was an adjustment factor,”
Horbas said in an October 2015
deposition.
When Houlihan inherited that
problem, he took on another one
as well.
Property valuations in Cook
County are handled differently
from anywhere else in the state,
thanks to a complicated system
that makes it difficult for most
taxpayers to fully understand how
their taxes are calculated.
Unlike the other 101 counties in
Illinois, Cook County assesses the
value of property at different
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS
1997
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
levels depending on their use.
Known as classification, the sys-
tem is meant to give homeowners
a break on taxes.
To shift more of the burden
onto businesses, the assessment
level for residential properties has
always been lower than the levels
for commercial and industrial
properties.
Still, the categories can’t be too
different. Under the state constitu-
tion, no one class of property can
be assessed at a level that exceeds
2.5 times the level of any other.
On the surface, Cook County
met that standard under Houlihan
and Hynes.
The reality, however, was differ-
ent — thanks to the county’s
practice of undervaluing residen-
tial properties.
State revenue department stud-
ies show that from at least 1994 to
2003, the median assessment level
for commercial properties in
Cook County was more than 2.5
times greater than the roughly 10
percent median assessment level
for residential homes.
Most taxpayers would never
know any of this. But more than a
decade ago, some influential law-
yers started suing.
The law firm of O’Keefe, Lyons
& Hynes was well positioned to
know what was wrong. Thomas
Lyons was a former deputy asses-
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Commercial in 2007:
16.53%
Residential in 2007:
9.04%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
sor and state senator who pushed
to allow Cook County to continue
using classification during the 1970
state constitutional convention.
Robert Hynes was the brother of
longtime assessor Hynes. And lead
attorney Mark Davis once headed
the tax division for the Cook
County state’s attorney’s office.
Before joining the firm, Davis
helped write changes to the state’s
property tax code in a way that
made it easier to challenge assess-
ments in circuit court. Prior to the
new law, taxpayers had to prove
their assessments were so faulty as
to suggest the assessor targeted
them specifically, an impractically
high burden of proof.
Since 2000, O’Keefe, Lyons &
Hynes has filed suits involving
dozens of commercial, industrial
and residential properties, arguing
that the assessor’s office trampled
state and federal constitutional
provisions between 2000 and
2008 — not just the 2.5 rule, but
also provisions that guarantee
equal protection under the law.
Most of the suits are still being
argued in county court.
The firm declined requests for
an interview but issued a state-
ment to the Tribune: “Discrimi-
natory assessments and opaque
methodologies destroy the fair-
ness of the property tax system for
all taxpayers — not just the
Under Joseph Berrios, who became assessor in 2010, property assessm
have systematically hurt homeowners living in poorer areas to the bene
plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuits.
Instead of opposing the rights of
taxpayers, agencies of local gov-
ernment should work to remedy
past discrimination and to ensure
a future system that is equitable.”
The foundation of the O’Keefe
suits is a study by their expert
witness, University of Illinois
economics professor Daniel
McMillen. He found that median
assessment levels for all classes of
property in Cook County were far
lower than county ordinances
dictated at the time.
Many findings in the McMillen
study mirror those from the Trib-
une’s analysis as well as from
studies conducted by the state
Department of Revenue. In an
affidavit filed in September, for
instance, McMillen independ-
ently cited the same computer
code that the Tribune had identi-
fied as the cause of low residential
assessments.
When Houlihan took charge of
the assessor’s office in 1997, those
with deep knowledge of the prop-
erty tax system would have under-
stood that the ongoing drastic
undervaluation of residential
homes left the county vulnerable
to legal challenges.
One way to fix that problem
would have been to raise residen-
tial assessments to legal levels.
But that would have increased
How low assessme
Under former Cook County
Assessor James Houlihan,
all valuations of residential
properties were reduced by
about 40 percent. But
people weren’t necessarily
getting a break on their tax
bills. In fact, many home-
owners ended up paying
more than they should
have, according to a
Tribune analysis. How can
that be? It all depends on
the system as a whole.
The computer
programs used under
Houlihan would have
decreased the home’s
value by 40 percent.
The state calculates
and applies a
multiplier in each
county to make sure
the county’s
assessments meet
requirements set by
state law. In most
counties, the
multiplier is close to 1.
Taxpayers can qualify
for exemptions that
lower a home’s
equalized assessed
value. The most
common is the
homeowner’s exemp-
tion, which shaves off
about $7,000.
The tax rate is derived
by dividing the
amount of money
that government
agencies need to
operate — called the
levy — by the taxable
value of property.
So in 2008, you would
home, even though the
ended in 2009. But the
that
SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Coo
many people’s taxes, and that is
not what Houlihan chose to do.
Instead, records show, the as-
sessor’s office left the residential
level where it was — at 10 percent
— and began taking measures that
reduced the levels for commercial
and industrial properties.
Over the next decade, the medi-
an commercial and industrial as-
sessment levels in Cook County
fell by more than a third. In 2007
the median level for commercial
property was about 17 percent —
less than half of what it was
supposed to be, according to state
studies.
Internal studies unearthed in
the O’Keefe lawsuits show the
assessor’s office knew about the
low valuations. One report, titled
“The Effects of the Decline in
Commercial Assessment,” de-
tailed a significant drop in com-
mercial assessment levels be-
tween 2003 and 2004.
The Tribune was able to ana-
lyze how the assessor’s office
valued residential properties by
examining records and formulas
obtained through a freedom of
information request, but Berrios
has declined to release similar
information about how commer-
cial and industrial properties are
assessed. He argues that the of-
fice’s valuations are a deliberative
process protected under the Free-
 TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS

al properties under James Houlihan ultimately increased the money homeowners paid to the Cook County treasurer’s office.

k Gap narrowed, but properties still undervalued

ogian turned When James Houlihan became assessor in 1997, the gap between the assessment levels for commercial and
n was hand- residential properties was wider than the state constitution allowed. His office addressed that issue by
unty Assessor driving down the level for commercial parcels.
his successor.
Democratic
office in 1997 PROPERTY ASSESSMENT LEVEL BY YEAR
ears. 40%
took over, the Legally required assessment level for commercial properties
as already ig-
by undervalu-
e board, state 30%

e assessment Commercial in 2007:

properties in 16.53%
t at 16 percent.
total assessed 20%

in the county
ual to about 16 Legally required assessment level for residential properties
market value.
not the case. 10%
inois Depart-
that compare Residential in 2007:
al sale prices 9.04%
as far back as
ar of available
n assessment 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

properties in SOURCE: Illinois Department of Revenue CHICAGO TRIBUNE

n much lower:
use the last example, 16 percent of levels depending on their use. sor and state senator who pushed
be happening ers to fully
$200,000 understand
is $32,000. And that how
is their
Knowntaxes are calculated.
as classification, the sys- to allow Cook County to continue
rs’ tax bills roughly 10 percent of the home’s tem is meant to give homeowners using classification during the 1970
d white that Unlike
market value.the other 101 counties inon
a break Illinois,
taxes. Cook County assesses the valueconvention.
state constitutional of prop-
being assessed erty at different
Applying levels depending
this mathematical on their
To shift more use.
of theKnown
burden asRobert
classification,
Hynes was the thebrother
system of
wizardry to all of the county’s onto businesses, the assessment longtime assessor Hynes. And lead
with an earlier is meant
homes to give
is what set thehomeowners a break
county’s de level on taxes.
for residential properties has attorney Mark Davis once headed
in which the factoTo shift more
assessment ofabout
level at the 10burden
alwaysontobeenbusinesses,
lower than thethe levelsassessment level for
the tax division for residen-
the Cook
pplied what’s percent, in apparent violation of for commercial and industrial County state’s attorney’s office.
tment factor.” tiallaw.
the properties has always been lower than the levels for commercial
properties. Before joining andtheindustrial
firm, Davis
purposefully properties.
Figuring out why or when this Still, the categories can’t be too helped write changes to the state’s
value of each practice started is difficult to different. Under the state constitu- property tax code in a way that
essment level Still,Butthe
discern. the categories
man who builtcan’t be too
the tion, no onedifferent. Undercan
class of property the made
stateitconstitution,
easier to challenge noassess-
one
class of property
computer models, John can be assessed
Horbas, at aatlevel
be assessed a levelthat exceedsments
that exceeds 2.5 times the
in circuit level
court. Prioroftoany
the
red this out by has testified that an adjustment 2.5 times the level of any other. new law, taxpayers had to prove
thousands of other.was part of the valuation
factor On the surface, Cook County their assessments were so faulty as
code used to On the surface, Cook Countythat
process for more than a decade met metstandard
that standard
under HoulihanundertoHoulihan
suggest the and Hynes.
assessor targeted
operties dur- before Houlihan took office. and Hynes. them specifically, an impractically
a. “IThe
knowreality,
for sure however,
from 1984 on was different
The reality, — thanks
however, wasto the county’s
differ- high burden practice
of proof. of under-
nown as he- valuing residential properties.
there was an adjustment factor,” ent — thanks to the county’s Since 2000, O’Keefe, Lyons &
models, take Horbas said in an October 2015 practice of undervaluing residen- Hynes has filed suits involving
mes that sold State revenue departmenttialstudies
deposition. properties.show that from at least dozens 1994 to 2003, the
of commercial, me-
industrial
five years and dian
When assessment level for
Houlihan inherited thatcommercial
State revenueproperties
department instud-
Cook andCounty wasproperties,
residential more than 2.5
arguing
ach one — the problem, he took on another one ies show that from at least 1994 to that the assessor’s office trampled
m, per square times
as well. greater than the roughly 2003,10thepercent median level
median assessment assessment
state and level for residential
federal constitutional
models then homes. for commercial properties in provisions between 2000 and
estimate mar-
home.
Constitutional
Most taxpayerscrisis would never
Cook County was more than 2.5 2008 — not just the 2.5 rule, but
timesknow
greateranythanofthe
this. But10
roughly more than
also a decade
provisions thatago, some
guarantee
, snippets of influential lawyers in
Property valuations started
Cook suing.
percent median assessment level equal protection under the law.
onto the end County are handled differently for residential homes. Most of the suits are still being
creased those fromThe law firm
anywhere of the
else in O’Keefe,
state, Lyons
Most & Hynes was
taxpayers wouldwell positioned
never to know
argued in county what was
court.
40 percent. So wrong. Thomas Lyons was a former deputy assessor and state senator who
thanks to a complicated system know any of this. But more than a The firm declined pushed
requests for
me that was that makes it difficult for most decade ago, some influential law- an interview but issued a state-
0 would be to allowtoCook
taxpayers Countyhow
fully understand to continue
yers started using
suing.classification during ment to the 1970 state
the Tribune: con-
“Discrimi-
00,000. stitutional
their taxes areconvention.
calculated. RobertTheHynes wasofthe
law firm brother
O’Keefe, Lyons ofnatory
longtime assessor
assessments andHynes.
opaque
n multiplied Unlike the other 101 counties in & Hynes was well positioned to methodologies destroy the fair-
ue by the legal And lead
Illinois, Cookattorney MarktheDavis
County assesses know once
whatheaded
was wrong. theThomas
tax division
ness offor the Cook
the property County
tax system for
16 percent. To state’sofattorney’s
value property atoffice.different Lyons was a former deputy asses- all taxpayers — not just the
Before joining the firm, Davis helped write changes to the state’s property tax
code in a way that made it easier to challenge assessments in circuit court. Prior to
the new law, taxpayers had to prove their assessments were so faulty as to suggest
the assessor targeted them specifically, an impractically high burden of proof.
Since 2000, O’Keefe, Lyons & Hynes has filed suits involving dozens of commer-
cial, industrial and residential properties, arguing that the assessor’s office trampled
state and federal constitutional provisions between 2000 and 2008 — not just the
 home, even though the assessor’s office undervalued it. These systematic undervaluation
ended in 2009. But the Tribune has uncovered new disparities in the system since then, on
that punish the poor while giving the wealthy a break.

SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Cook County treasurer’s office, Cook County clerk’s office, Tribune reporting
JONATHON BERLIN AND JEMAL R. BRI

trial properti
valued more
All that
that, in 2008
shaved tens
from the tot
the county, th
The result w
of problems t
burden for
owners.
The reason
in property ta
and the tax r
The mult
provision in
that the tota
property in
sessed at 331
revenue depa
sessments to
whether cou
ber.
If the ass
than 331⁄3 p
plies a mult
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE “equalization
Under JosephBerrios,
Under Joseph Berrios,
whowho became
became assessor
assessor in 2010,
in 2010, property
property assessments
assessments have beenhave beenby
plagued plagued by have
errors and errors and
sys- sessed value
have systematically
tematically hurt homeowners
hurt homeowners living
living in poorer in to
areas poorer areasof
the benefit tothose
the benefit
in more of thoseones.
affluent in more affluent ones. the county t
statutory leve
plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuits. many people’s taxes, and that is dom of Information Act. the equalized
2.5 rule,
Instead but alsothe
of opposing provisions
rights of that guarantee
not what Houlihanequal
chose toprotection
do. Inunder
response, thethelaw. Most
Tribune ofa
filed payers can
taxpayers, agencies of local gov-
the suits are still being argued in county court. Instead, records show, the as- lawsuit and won a ruling in its spelled out o
ernment should work to remedy sessor’s office left the residential favor from Cook County Circuit In nearly e
pastThe firm declined
discrimination requests
and to ensure levelfor an itinterview
where was — at 10 butpercentissued a statement
Court Judge Neil to H. the Tri-“I
Cohen. Illinois, the
abune:
future “Discriminatory
system that is equitable.” assessments and opaque methodologies destroy the fairnessif
— and began taking measures that think it leads to an absurd result around 1. Bu
The foundation of the O’Keefe reduced the levels for commercial anyone were to accept this argu- sor’s office w
of the
suits is property
a study by tax theirsystem
expert forandall taxpayers
industrial — not just thement.
properties. plaintiffs
I think init’s the ongoing
actually a viola- across Cook
witness, University of Illinois Over the next decade, the
lawsuits. Instead of opposing the rights of taxpayers, agencies of local governmentmedi- tion of trust that the public er for Cook in
economics professor Daniel an commercial and industrial as- officials are given by the people,” Depressin
should work
McMillen. He found to remedy
that median pastsessment
discrimination
levels in Cook and County
to ensure a future
Cohen system that is
said in court. also can incr
assessment
equitable.” levels for all classes of fell by more than a third. In 2007, Despite Cohen’s sharp rebuke, are derived
property in Cook County were far the median level for commercial the assessor’s office is appealing district’s tota
lowerThe foundation
than of the O’Keefe
county ordinances property suits
wasisabout
a study by their
17 percent — expert witness,
that decision, University
at taxpayer expense. value into th
dictated
of Illinoisat the time.
economics professor lessDaniel
than half of what He
McMillen. it was
found thatThe median
lower assessments
assessment for amount of m
Many findings in the McMillen supposed to be, according to state commercial and industrial prop- ernment uni
levelsmirror
study for allthose classes
from the ofTrib-
property in Cook County were farerties
studies. lower than
solved county for
a problem ordi-the operate.
nances dictated at the time.
une’s analysis as well as from Internal studies unearthed in assessor’s office — the county was In Cook
studies conducted by the state the O’Keefe lawsuits show the no longer valuing one category at a multiplier a
Many findings
Department of Revenue. in theIn McMillen
an assessor’s study
officemirror thosethe
knew about fromlevel
themore
Tribune’s
than 2.5analysis as
times higher were applied
well as from studies conducted by the state Department of Revenue. In an affidavit
affidavit filed in September, for low valuations. One report, titled than another. because com
instance, McMillen independ- “The Effects of the Decline in But the changes meant many trial properti
filed cited
ently in September,
the same computer for instance, McMillen
Commercial independently
Assessment,” cited the same
de- homeowners computer
were paying more in more than r
codethat
code thatthethe Tribune
Tribune had identified
had identi- as the cause
tailed a significant drop inofcom-low residential
taxes. assessments. homeowners
fied as the cause of low residential mercial assessment levels be- bigger share.
When Houlihan took charge tween of theandassessor’s office in 1997, those with deep
assessments. 2003 2004. Paying the price The owne
knowledge
When Houlihan of the property
took charge of tax The system
Tribunewould
was ablehaveto ana- understood that the ongoing in Chicago t
the assessor’s office in 1997, those lyze how the assessor’s office To gauge the impact of the at $200,000
drastic
with deepundervaluation
knowledge of the prop- of residential homes properties
valued residential left the county vulnerable
by county’s to legal
questionable chal-
practices on paid about $
lenges.
erty tax system would have under- examining records and formulas property owners’ pocketbooks, property had
stood that the ongoing drastic obtained through a freedom of the Tribune studied the 2008 tax rately, the T
One way tooffixresidential
undervaluation that problem would have
information been
request, but to raise residential
Berrios year. assessments to towns wher
legal levels.
homes left the county vulnerable has declined to release similar That year, homeowners’ prop- higher tha
to legal challenges. information about how commer- erties were still being dramatically amounts wo
Butway
One thatto would
fix that have
problem increased
cial andmany people’s
industrial taxes,
properties are and that is not
undervalued, at 10what Houli-
percent. The larger.
han chose
would have been to do.to raise residen- assessed. He argues that the of- tricky snippet of computer code — In fact, an
tial assessments to legal levels. fice’s valuations are a deliberative the adjustment factor — was still closed in
Instead,
But that would records show, theprocess
have increased assessor’s
protectedoffice
underleft
thethe
Free- residential level where
in place. Commercial it indus-
and was O’Keefe laws
— at 10 percent — and began taking measures that reduced the levels for commer-
cial and industrial properties.
Over the next decade, the median commercial and industrial assessment levels
in Cook County fell by more than a third. In 2007, the median level for commercial
property was about 17 percent — less than half of what it was supposed to be, ac-
cording to state studies.
Internal studies unearthed in the O’Keefe lawsuits show the assessor’s office
knew about the low valuations. One report, titled “The Effects of the Decline in
Commercial Assessment,” detailed a significant drop in commercial assessment
levels between 2003 and 2004.
The Tribune was able to analyze how the assessor’s office valued residential
properties by examining records and formulas obtained through a freedom of infor-
mation request, but Berrios has declined to release similar information about how
commercial and industrial properties are assessed. He argues that the office’s valu-
ations are a deliberative process protected under the Freedom of Information Act.
In response, the Tribune filed a lawsuit and won a ruling in its favor from Cook
County Circuit Court Judge Neil H. Cohen. “I think it leads to an absurd result if
anyone were to accept this argument. I think it’s actually a violation of trust that the
public officials are given by the people,” Cohen said in court.
Despite Cohen’s sharp rebuke, the assessor’s office is appealing that decision, at
taxpayer expense.
The lower assessments for commercial and industrial properties solved a prob-
lem for the assessor’s office — the county was no longer valuing one category at a
level more than 2.5 times higher than another.
But the changes meant many homeowners were paying more in taxes.
Paying the price
To gauge the impact of the county’s questionable practices on property owners’
pocketbooks, the Tribune studied the 2008 tax year.
That year, homeowners’ properties were still being dramatically undervalued, at
10 percent. The tricky snippet of computer code — the adjustment factor — was still
in place. Commercial and industrial properties were being undervalued more than
ever.
All that undervaluing meant that, in 2008, the assessor’s office shaved tens of bil-
lions of dollars from the total assessed value of the county, the Tribune estimated.
The result was a cascading series of problems that increased the tax burden for resi-
dential property owners.
The reasons lie with two factors in property tax bills: the multiplier and the tax
rate.
The multiplier comes from a provision in state law requiring that the total mar-
ket value of all property in every county be assessed at 33 1/3 percent. The state
revenue department compares assessments to actual sales to test whether counties
reach that number.
If the assessment level is less than 33 1/3 percent, the state applies a multiplier,
known as an “equalization factor,” to the assessed value of every property in the
county to bring it up to the statutory level. The result is called the equalized as-
sessed value. Taxpayers can see these figures spelled out on their bills.
In nearly every other county in Illinois, the multiplier is always around 1. But be-
cause the assessor’s office was depressing values across Cook County, the multiplier
for Cook in 2008 was nearly 3.
Depressing property values also can increase tax rates, which are derived by di-
viding a taxing district’s total equalized assessed value into the tax levy — the total
amount of money that local government units say they need to operate.
In Cook County, the bigger multiplier and higher tax rates were applied to all
properties. But because commercial and industrial properties were undervalued
more than residential properties, homeowners ended up paying a bigger share.
The owner of a $326,000 home in Chicago that was undervalued at $200,000
in 2008 would have paid about $500 less in taxes if all property had been valued
accurately, the Tribune estimated. In towns where tax rates are far higher than Chi-
cago’s, the amounts would have been much larger.
 MORE ON THE WEB CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM/TAXDIV
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Learn about guide to under- rep
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han knew this

How low assessments turned into higher property tax bills 1996, commerc
disproportiona
Under former Cook County assessed valu
Assessor James Houlihan, 2006, the dec
all valuations of residential ratio reversed
properties were reduced by ing residential
about 40 percent. But portionate am
people weren’t necessarily value,” the stud
getting a break on their tax In April 200
bills. In fact, many home- before the City
owners ended up paying propose a maj
more than they should county’s ass
Let’s say you bought a home
have, according to a in Chicago in 2008
Among other
Tribune analysis. How can for $326,530. lined the class
that be? It all depends on Cook County
the system as a whole. number of cate
Houlihan’s p
County Boar
months later
The computer A fair assessment
debate, also
programs used under would have estimated
assessment le
Houlihan would have the value of the home percent. In eff
decreased the home’s to be around the law to align wi
value by 40 percent. actual sales price. Houlihan v
would “result i
simplicity and
The state calculates In Cook County, the “Transparen
and applies a multiplier is always buzzword,” he
multiplier in each higher than 1 because strive for tran
county to make sure of its unique classifica- thing we do.”
the county’s tion system. But in Yet Houliha
assessments meet 2008, the undervaluing about the adju
requirements set by of so many properties den in the sni
state law. In most drove the multiplier the fact that
counties, the even higher than it been quietly a
multiplier is close to 1. would have been property at ab
otherwise. many years.
Then a cris
Taxpayers can qualify The exemption is the problems that
for exemptions that same amount of
lower a home’s
equalized assessed
money, regardless of a
home’s value. New leade
value. The most
When the U
common is the
collapsed, it
homeowner’s exemp-
tion, which shaves off
plunging. But
about $7,000.
had removed t
tor, people w
increases in t
The tax rate is derived The tax rate would mates of marke
by dividing the have been less if
Confusion a
amount of money properties were not
sued, throwing
that government being systematical-
agencies need to ly undervalued. The
into disarray.
operate — called the larger the value of
In January
levy — by the taxable all properties, the County Board
value of property. lower the tax rate. member pane
suring assessm
Houlihan a ste
an explanation
“These inc
value posted b
significant dec
tually every fa
real estate mar
Houlihan, w
the previous
So in 2008, you would have paid about $500 more in property taxes for your hypothetical
would not see
home, even though the assessor’s office undervalued it. These systematic undervaluations was called be
ended in 2009. But the Tribune has uncovered new disparities in the system since then, ones Review to testi
that punish the poor while giving the wealthy a break. ment practices
Among tho
SOURCES: Cook County assessor’s office, Cook County treasurer’s office, Cook County clerk’s office, Tribune reporting
Board of Revie
JONATHON BERLIN AND JEMAL R. BRINSON/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Berrios, head o
Democratic Pa
trial properties were being under- of Illinois Hou
valued more than ever. Madigan, who
All that undervaluing meant a property tax
that, in 2008, the assessor’s office Less than a
shaved tens of billions of dollars would be elect
from the total assessed value of ing independe
the county, the Tribune estimated. rest Claypool
The result was a cascading series despite a slew
of problems that increased the tax highlighting B
 In fact, an internal study disclosed in discovery for the O’Keefe lawsuit shows
that Houlihan knew this was happening. “In 1996, commercial property held a dis-
proportionate amount of the assessed value distribution. By 2006, the declining
commercial ratio reversed the situation, causing residential to have the dispropor-
tionate amount of assessed value,” the study concluded.
In April 2008, Houlihan stood before the City Club of Chicago to propose a major
overhaul of the county’s assessment system. Among other changes, it streamlined
the classification system in Cook County by reducing the number of categories.
Houlihan’s proposal, which the County Board approved five months later after
one day of debate, also set a new legal assessment level for homes: 10 percent. In ef-
fect, he changed the law to align with reality.
Houlihan vowed the changes would “result in additional clarity, simplicity and
uniformity.”
“Transparency can’t just be a buzzword,” he said. “We need to strive for trans-
parency in everything we do.”
Yet Houlihan never came clean about the adjustment factor hidden in the snip-
pets of code — or the fact that Cook County had been quietly assessing residential
property at about 10 percent for many years.
Then a crisis arrived, creating problems that couldn’t be hidden.
New leadership
When the U.S. housing market collapsed, it sent home prices plunging. But be-
cause Houlihan had removed the adjustment factor, people were seeing steep in-
creases in the assessor’s estimates of market value.
Confusion and resentment ensued, throwing the entire system into disarray.
In January 2010, the Cook County Board of Review, a three-member panel
charged with ensuring assessments are fair, sent Houlihan a stern letter requesting
an explanation.
“These increases in market value posted by your office defy a significant declin-
ing trend in virtually every facet of the current real estate market,” the letter said.
Houlihan, who had announced the previous summer that he would not seek re-
election, also was called before the Board of Review to testify about his assessment
practices.
Among those sitting on the Board of Review at the time was Berrios, head of the
Cook County Democratic Party and a close ally of Illinois House Speaker Michael
Madigan, who makes his living as a property tax attorney.
Less than a year later, Berrios would be elected assessor, defeating independent
candidate Forrest Claypool and a Republican despite a slew of news stories high-
lighting Berrios’ political ties.
“Do not count our organization out of anything,” Berrios said in his victory
speech.
Berrios has now been in office for more than six years. Under his watch, the
Tribune found, assessments have been plagued by errors and have systematically
hurt homeowners living in poorer areas while giving many people living in affluent
neighborhoods an unsanctioned tax break.
He also is now embroiled in the lawsuits filed by O’Keefe, Lyons & Hynes.
The suits are still pending after more than a decade, in part because the asses-
sor’s office has yet to deliver documents sought in a 2009 subpoena. In recent court
filings, plaintiffs accused the office under Houlihan of purposefully destroying pa-
per and electronic records relevant to the case, a contention the county denies.
The law firm is seeking refunds of tens of millions of tax dollars sent years ago to
school districts, municipalities and other government agencies across the county,
many of which are already struggling with budget issues.
 With so much money on the line, local governments and agencies are standing
with the county in defense of the assessor’s office. Among them are the city of Chi-
cago and Chicago Public Schools, which could owe tens of millions of dollars in
refunds if the suits prevail.
Circuit Court Judge Alfred J. Paul has refused numerous requests to throw out
the lawsuits. Chicago as well as a few smaller municipalities and school districts
have already settled some of the cases, refunding millions in erroneous taxes.

David Kidwell contributed.

Students from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Inte-

grated Marketing Communications also assisted as part of investigative reporting
classes.
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BEST OF ’17
Tribune critics pick arts highlights of the year
CHICAGO SPORTS
Bears can learn
from the Rams’
turnaround
REAL ESTATE TRAVEL
As team plays for pride,
Vacant parking Yucatan offers look west for template
becomes income, a deep dive into
living space Mayan culture
BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

B Final

Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune Sunday, December 10, 2017 Breaking news at chicagotribune.com

THE TAX DIVIDE

Why CPS
Assessor’s estimates chief, ally
of mayor,
defy logic, benefit lawyers had to go
Claypool’s exit part
of pattern during
Emanuel’s tenure
By Bill Ruthhart
and Hal Dardick
Chicago Tribune

It was the type of top-

notch send-off that few
receive at City Hall, and
certainly no one who de-
parts under a dark ethical
cloud.
One by one, school board
members, religious leaders
and even Mayor Rahm
Emanuel stepped to the
microphone to praise soon-
to-be-former Chicago Pub-
lic Schools CEO Forrest
Claypool.
“I’ve known Forrest for
30-plus years, the whole
time in my life of public life
and public service, and I
want to thank Forrest for
his exemplary service to the
city of Chicago. Wherever
he has worked he has left an
incredible and indelible
mark on every endeavor,” a
visibly tired Emanuel said.
“I can say he can walk out
with his head high, because
he did a job well. And he
will always be my friend.”
It was left to Claypool
himself to nod at why he
was resigning, and the coda
JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE he offered was vague: “I
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios is required by state law to revalue property every three years, yet his methods are hidden from the public. hope that when this chapter
of my career is written,

A new analysis of commercial properties finds

people will say, ‘Even good
men can make stupid

thousands of identical values, high error rates Turn to Emanuel, Page 6

By Jason Grotto and Sandhya Kambhampati | A Chicago Tribune/ProPublica Illinois collaboration

A
mid the most tumul-
tuous real estate market
since the Great Depres-
sion, Cook County Assessor
Joseph Berrios produced valu-
ations for thousands of com-
mercial and industrial proper-
ties in Chicago that did not
change from one reassessment
to the next, not even by a single
dollar.
That fact, one finding in an
unprecedented ProPublica
Illinois-Chicago Tribune anal-
ysis of tens of thousands of
property records, points to a
conclusion that experts say
defies any logical explanation
except one:
Berrios failed at one of his
most important responsibili-
ties — estimating the value of
commercial and industrial
properties.
What’s more, a separate
analysis reveals commercial
and industrial property assess-
ments throughout Cook
County were so riddled with
errors that they created deep
inequities, punishing small
businesses while cutting a
break to owners of high-value
properties and helping fuel a
cottage industry of politically
powerful tax attorneys.
And because commercial
and industrial properties as a
group were not assessed prop-
erly, residential homeowners
across the county were forced
to carry an additional and
unnecessary burden, paying
more in property taxes than
they would have otherwise.
State law says the assessor
must revalue property every
three years. Yet Berrios, using
methods hidden from the pub-
lic, repeatedly produced initial
valuations of commercial and
Aging boomers
industrial properties — known
as first-pass values — that did facing shortage
not change.
For example, as the financial of caregivers
crisis cratered the real estate Few qualified workers,
market in 2009, Berrios’ pred- rising costs and a massive
ecessor estimated the value of demographic shift have
a stout brick building in a newly minted seniors fac-
bustling commercial area on ing a crisis. Business
Chicago’s Northwest Side at
$13,455,132.
Three years later, in 2012,
Berrios had taken office and
the commercial real estate
As Trump visits
market had come roaring back. rights museums,
Turn to Taxes, Page 12
tribute, turmoil
Trump paid tribute to civil
rights leaders as demon-
strations surrounded his
visit to Mississippi.
Nation & World, Page 25

Poet Perkins gains new fame for ‘Hey Black Child’

Poem often recited
in schools credited
to others by mistake
By Christopher
Borrelli
Chicago Tribune
For a long time, if you
stumbled across the poetry
of Useni Eugene Perkins,
there was a fair chance you
thought you were reading
the work of Maya Angelou.
It’s often credited this way
online. Which might be
flattering to Perkins, except
many more people seem to
think he’s Countee Cullen,
a Harlem Renaissance poet
who died in the 1940s. In
fact, Perkins, who lives off
Jackson Park, is 85 and
looks very much alive, a
testament to his years as a
long-distance runner. Still,
confusion over his legacy
has lasted for decades.
Also, he is not Langston
Hughes.
Or Gwendolyn Brooks.
Two more poets he’s
mistaken for.
Recently, after an Afri-
can-American arts website
posted video of a 3-year-old
Chicago girl reciting “Hey
Black Child,” Perkins’ best-
known (and most misiden-
tified) poem, with a note
explaining that Perkins is
the author, not Cullen, a
reader left this comment:
“You insult my black herit-
age to covet that which is
not yours. Tell the truth.”
The truth is, Useni Eu-
gene Perkins wrote “Hey
Black Child.”
A longtime fixture of the
South Side art scene,
Perkins was a leader of the
Black Arts Movement of
the 1960s and ’70s, which
sought to distance its art
from European influences,
encouraging fresh Afro-
Turn to Perkins, Page 10
TOM SKILLING’S
WEATHER
High 34
Low 24
Complete forecast in
Nation & World, Page 39
$3.99 city and suburbs,
$4.99 elsewhere
170th year No. 344
ABEL URIBE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE ©Chicago Tribune
Useni Eugene Perkins, a
Chicago writer and social
worker, was a leader of the
Black Arts Movement.

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12 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, December 10, 2017 B
THE TAX DIVIDE
Commercial valuations defy logic
Taxes, from Page 1
Yet the assessor’s estimate did not
change: $13,455,132.
In 2015, as the market contin-
ued to climb, Berrios’ office once
again arrived at the same number:
$13,455,132.
Three straight reassessments.
Three identical values.
Given the complexity of the
commercial real estate market and
its dynamic nature, experts say it is
inconceivable for such values to
remain the same over time.
But an analysis of more than
40,000 parcels of commercial and
industrial property in Chicago
shows that, under Berrios, more
than two-thirds had identical first-
pass values in at least two consecu-
tive reassessments.
Nearly a fourth of the parcels —
pieces of real estate that receive
their own assessment and tax bill
— had the same initial value for the
Chicago reassessments of 2009,
2012 and 2015.
Under Berrios’ predecessor,
James Houlihan, just 1 percent of
parcels saw no change over two or
more reassessments conducted in
2003, 2006 and 2009.
“For values to stay exactly the
same, that indicates they aren’t
doing anything,” said Peter Davis,
an expert on assessments who
helped write standards for the
International Association of As-
sessing Officers, a professional
organization that develops guide-
lines used around the world.
“If your models are working
correctly, the chances of values
staying exactly the same are virtu-
ally impossible.”
Berrios already is under fire for
producing inaccurate residential
assessments that burdened poorer
homeowners, problems the Trib-
une’s series “The Tax Divide”
uncovered in June. Berrios, who is
up for re-election next year, testi-
fied before the county board about
his methods in July, and Board
President Toni Preckwinkle or-
dered a study of residential assess-
ments.
The new findings on commer-
cial and industrial valuations ex-
pose many of the same flaws, with
the assessor’s office generally un-
dervaluing expensive downtown
buildings while overvaluing small
businesses in poorer neighbor-
hoods.
In 2014, for instance, a building
on Oak Street in the Gold Coast
neighborhood sold for $14.9 mil-
lion. The next year, the assessor’s
office valued the building at $3.6
million — less than a quarter of the
sales price. A year after that, in
2016, the building sold for even
more: $23 million.
Eight miles west, a small indus-
trial shop in the working-class
Belmont Central neighborhood
sold for $110,000 in 2015. The
assessor’s estimate that year was
$207,140, nearly double the sale
price.
The effects of flawed commer-
cial and industrial valuations ar-
en’t limited to people who own
businesses. Owners of residential
properties, as a group, also ended
up paying more in property taxes
than they would have if the
assessor’s office had done its work
properly.
The total amount of property
taxes levied in a given year is fixed,
so if one group of property owners
doesn’t pay its fair share, others
have to make up the difference.
And for years, the county has
significantly undervalued com-
mercial and industrial properties
as a class, according to the ProPub-
lica Illinois-Chicago Tribune anal-
ysis as well as studies conducted
by the Illinois Department of
Revenue. That means the esti-
mated total value of those proper-
ties, after appeals, was on average
less than it should have been.
The extra burden on homeown-
ers was even greater for people
who owned lower-priced proper-
ties, because the assessor already
tended to overvalue them in com-
parison with other homes.
The assessor’s office encour-
ages property owners to file an
appeal if they are dissatisfied with
an assessment. In cases where
officials did not change a proper-
ty’s initial estimate from one reas-
sessment to the next, the vast
majority of the owners appealed,
government records show.
Seventy-four percent of those
owners won reductions from the
assessor — only to see the values
snap right back to the same
number in the next reassessment.
“There is no rationale for having
no change in these initial valu-
ations,” said Richard Almy, former
executive director of the Inter-
national Association of Assessing
Officers. “Especially if the assessor
later agreed to a reduction, there’s
no earthly reason for them to go
back to the same value.”
The repetitive process feeds a
property tax appeal industry that
provides the bulk of Berrios’ cam-
paign contributions. Inaccurate
assessments also help drive busi-
ness to political allies who are
property tax attorneys, including
Illinois House Speaker Michael
Madigan, the longest-serving state
house speaker in U.S. history, and
Ald. Edward Burke, the longtime
chair of the Chicago City Council’s
finance committee.
The office’s deputy assessor for
communications, Tom Shaer, did
not explain why thousands of
first-pass values were identical
over multiple reassessments
under Berrios. The other findings
from ProPublica Illinois and the
Tribune are misleading, he said,
and do not “do justice to the
complexity” of Cook County’s
assessment system.
“The study includes five years of
the real estate crash,” Shaer wrote
in an emailed response. “The crash
played havoc with figures in cer-
tain industry measures used for
this story, making them unreliable
when evaluating the assessor’s
work.”
Shaer also defended the office’s
reliance on the appeals process.
“Appeals of commercial and
industrial property are extremely
effective in giving the assessor’s
office the most complete and
updated information,” he wrote.
“If not for the appeal process,
Cook County would need hun-
dreds of financial personnel to
initially obtain that information —
at a cost of more than $32 million
per year.”
Cook County’s deeply flawed
assessment system is a source of
vexation for many commercial
property owners, said Elizabeth
Holland, CEO of Chicago-based
commercial real estate company
Abbell Associates, which owns
property all over the Midwest.
“It’s a system that we don’t see
anywhere else in the country,” said
Holland, a former chair of the
International Council of Shopping
Centers. “They are not doing an
accurate job of assessing property,
and I think it’s a frustration for
everyone I know who owns com-
mercial real estate here.
“It means time, effort and mon-
ey because they make you hire
lawyers to appeal inaccurate as-
sessments.”
‘Not doing the work’
With more than 1.8 million
parcels of property ranging from
skyscrapers and bungalows to
steel mills and condominiums,
Cook County has one of the most
complex property tax bases in the
country.
For assessment purposes, most
properties consist of a single par-
cel of real estate. But some have
multiple parcels, each of which
receives its own assessment and its
own tax bill.
Assessing all that real estate is
difficult — and time-consuming.
Berrios says his predecessors in
the assessor’s office failed to get
the work done on time for more
than three decades.
The tardiness delayed property
tax bills from going out and forced
taxing bodies across the county to
take out loans, known as tax
anticipation notes, to tide them
over until property taxes came in,
costing taxpayers money for inter-
est and fees.
That changed when Berrios
took office.
Despite economic upheaval and
budget cuts that slashed the asses-
sor’s staff, Berrios finished assess-
ments on schedule, which helped
other agencies get the tax bills out
on time. In fending off criticism of
his tenure, he’s repeatedly pointed
to this feat, crediting his office for
saving county taxpayers $5 million
to $6 million a month in interest
costs.
“Our staff is 25 percent smaller
than when I took office,” he told
county commissioners at the July
hearing. “But we still get the job
done right. The assessment cycle
has been completed either on time
or early six years in a row, after the
previous assessors were late for 34
years straight.”
State law requires the assessor
to revalue property every three
years. Unlike residential proper-
ties, which are valued en masse
using computer programs, the
assessor’s office values commer-
cial and industrial properties indi-
vidually on spreadsheets grouped
by type and neighborhood, ac-
cording to interviews with current
and former staff.
Doing it that way is necessary
because these properties don’t sell
as often as residential homes,
making it harder and more time-
consuming to estimate their mar-
ket value.
To produce estimates as close as
possible to the price a property
might fetch on the open market,
the assessor’s staff must gather and
analyze reams of market data —
including rents and expenses per
square foot, sales information,
vacancy rates and other indicators.
In a dynamic market like Chi-
cago, which the assessor’s office
says has about 50,000 commercial
and industrial parcels, the factors
that go into these complex calcula-
tions are constantly changing. So
the estimated values should fluc-
Brenda Doyle, left, daughter Jamilah and Jamilah’s father run a day care in Chicago. A month after the Doyles
bought the building for $205,000 in 2015, a notice from the county assessor pegged the value at $324,700.
From 2009 to 2015, the county assessor’s office produced three identical estimates of the value of this build-
ing at West Logan Boulevard and North Elston Avenue in Chicago, shown last month.
Once rare, identical values become common
Thousands of value estimates produced under Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios did not change from one
reassessment to the next. Experts in assessments said that is next to impossible in the commercial market.
FOR ABOUT 40,000 COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL PARCELS IN CHICAGO:
Under James Houlihan
1.1% had at least two identical
first-pass values for the
reassessment years of 2003, 2006 and
2009. This includes 0.08% of properties
that had three identical values.
NOTE: First data set includes 39,758 parcels; second data set includes 40,284 parcels
SOURCE: ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune analysis of Cook County data
tuate as well.
But for tens of thousands of
these Chicago parcels, the asses-
sor’s office’s first-pass values did
not change at all over two or even
three reassessment periods,
county data show.
About 20,000 commercial and
industrial parcels had the exact
same estimates in 2009 and 2012.
An additional 15,800 did not
change between 2012 and 2015.
And the estimates for more than
9,000 parcels were identical for all
three of those reassessments.
The data were analyzed by
parcel, not property, because more
complex properties can include
multiple parcels with different
Under Joseph Berrios
67.4%
values for the reassessment years of 2009,
2012 and 2015. This includes 23% of
properties that had three identical values.
uses. For example, a building may
house retail stores, office space
and a garage, with each segment
valued separately. Thus it’s pos-
sible for valuations in one segment
to change while other segments
stay the same.
It is impossible to know exactly
why the duplicate estimates oc-
curred. In January 2016, the asses-
sor’s office denied the Tribune’s
open-records request for the mar-
ket rents and expenses, vacancy
rates and other variables it used to
calculate the value of commercial
and industrial properties.
The newspaper sued the office
in Cook County Circuit Court, and
last December a judge ordered the
ZBIGNIEW BZDAK/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
ERIN HOOLEY/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
had at least two
identical first-pass
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
assessor to turn over the records.
But Berrios appealed the ruling —
at taxpayer expense — so the
values the office used remain
secret for now.
Reports from a federal court
monitor overseeing Berrios’ hiring
practices, meanwhile, found some
key people working inside the
assessor’s office had little idea how
values were determined.
In one critical department, the
staff had “little to no background
as to how some values are actually
derived and approved,” wrote re-
tired Circuit Court Judge Clifford
Meacham in his December 2014
report.
In his early days as assessor,
In 2014, the office tower at 300 N. LaSalle Drive sold for $850 million — at the time, the highest single-build-
ing office sale in Chicago history. A year later, the assessor valued the building at just $392 million.
Berrios fired more than a dozen
employees, including some of the
office’s most knowledgeable and
experienced workers, according to
the monitor’s reports and inter-
views with current and former
staff.
Shaer defended Berrios’ hiring
decisions.
“We had done our due diligence
to determine which employees
could normally be replaced when
administrations change,” Shaer
said in his statement. “There’s
often a difference of opinion when
it comes to terminations.”
In interviews, experts on assess-
ments said the thousands of dupli-
cate estimates suggest that
Berrios’ staff skipped or disre-
garded the calculations necessary
to value those parcels.
Then, if property owners filed
appeals, the estimates could be
updated later. Essentially, the ex-
perts said, Berrios relied upon the
appeals process to arrive at the
assessor’s final valuations.
“There are 100 excuses they’ll
give for not doing the work,” said
Davis, the assessment expert who
helped draft industry standards.
“But it means they are basically
coming up with values through
negotiations.”
A familiar pattern
The owners of Sweet Pea Acad-
emy, a day care in Chicago’s
Auburn Gresham neighborhood,
knew as soon as they received the
first assessment notice for their
one-story building that something
was off.
Brenda and Larry Doyle, who
started the day care with their
daughter Jamilah, bought the
building in 2015 for $205,000.
When they received their first
notice from the assessor a month
later, however, the property’s value
was pegged at $324,700.
“It’s ridiculous,” Larry Doyle
said. “There are a lot of businesses
in the area that have the same
thing happening, and we’re all
pissed off about it.”
Farther west, on West 79th
Street, the owner of a pest control
business purchased a small store-
front in 2012 for $60,000. The
assessor valued it at $111,028 that
year. And when 2015 rolled
around, the value didn’t budge.
Meanwhile, the owners of an
office tower at 300 N. LaSalle
Drive got much better news from
the assessor. The building along
the Chicago River had sold in 2014
for $850 million — at the time, the
highest single-building office sale
in Chicago history. A year later, the
assessor valued the building at just
$392 million, less than half the sale
price.
It’s a pattern that’s both familiar
and deeply unfair.
When the Tribune studied resi-
dential assessments under Berrios,
the newspaper found high error
rates as well as a tendency to give
expensive properties a break at the
expense of poorer homeowners.
JOHN J. KIM/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
The same holds true for commer-
cial and industrial real estate.
The basic method of testing the
accuracy of assessments is to use
properties that have sold to see
how well the assessor’s estimates
compare to actual market values.
The analysis is called a sales ratio
study because it involves dividing
the assessor’s estimates by the
sales prices to calculate ratios.
No assessment system produces
100 percent accurate results, so the
next step is to run statistics that
show whether errors fall within
acceptable standards. The most
common test of accuracy is the
coefficient of dispersion, or COD.
It is, essentially, an error rate. For
income-producing properties, the
International Association of As-
sessing Officers sets the acceptable
level of COD at 20. That means
assessments are off by an average
of 20 percent.
Under Berrios, the scores for
commercial and industrial first-
pass valuations have been as high
as 133, ProPublica Illinois and the
Tribune found. Though experts
often allow complex jurisdictions
like Cook County some leeway,
they said those results are unac-
ceptable.
The errors also have a bias. With
lower-priced commercial and in-
dustrial properties, the assessor’s
estimates tend to come in too high.
At higher price points, assess-
ments are often too low.
Known as regressivity, this pat-
tern means the property tax sys-
B Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, December 10, 2017 13
Law firms do big business
Madigan & Getzendanner, a six-member firm where Illinois House
Speaker Michael Madigan is a founding partner, stands at the top of
the commercial and industrial appeals market in Cook County,
according to an analysis of appeals data from the assessor’s office.
COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL APPEALS, 2011-2016
Total Reductions Number
initial value granted by of parcels
Law firm appealed assessor appealed
Madigan & Getzendanner $8.6B $1.7B 4,283
Crane and Norcross $7.9B $1.8B 16,611
O’Keefe Lyons & Hynes $5.0B $851.3M 4,485
Klafter & Burke $4.7B $864.9M 9,526
Worsek & Vihon $3.0B $784.5M 6,078
Eugene L. Griffin & Associates $2.9B $618.8M 4,693
Thomas M. Tully & Associates $2.9B $756.4M 4,273
Liston & Tsantilis $2.8B $725.2M 7,675
Mayer Brown $2.2B $439.2M 1,265
Sarnoff & Baccash $2.1B $555.2M 7,865
SOURCE: ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune analysis
of Cook County assessor's office appeals data
How complex properties are assessed
The basic building blocks of the assessment system are called parcels.
Each parcel is identified using a Property Index Number, or PIN, and
receives a separate assessment and a separate tax bill. Most properties
contain only one parcel, but more complex properties can include
multiple parcels with different uses.
PIN
Office segment
The office space in
this building
includes multiple
PINs. Each PIN
receives a value in
proportion to its
share of the
segment as a whole.
Garage segment
This garage space
has only one PIN
and is valued
separately.
Retail segment
This segment may
include multiple
businesses, such as
bank branches or
pharmacies, yet is
valued as a single PIN.
Parking lot
segment
Parking lots are also
valued separately and
sometimes include multiple PINs.
SOURCE: ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune reporting
Standards of accuracy, fairness not met
In Cook County, first-pass valuations of commercial and industrial
properties have repeatedly violated standards for accuracy (COD) and
for regressivity (PRD).
COEFFICIENT OF DISPERSION PRICE-RELATED DIFFERENTIAL
150 3.0
100 2.0
50 1.0
Industry
standard:
0.98 to 1.03
Industry standard: 5 to 20*
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
* Assessing experts allow complex jurisdictions some leeway
SOURCE: ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune
analysis of Cook County data CHICAGO TRIBUNE
tem is unfair to people who own Pea building to accommodate in-
lower-value properties. Those tax-
payers end up paying more, rela-
fants and toddlers, the Doyles said
they didn’t hire an attorney to
tive to the value of their property, appeal their inflated assessment.
than others do. The result was a $14,875 tax bill
Assessing experts measure re- that the Doyles say was difficult to
gressivity with a statistical test pay. Had the property been valued
called the price-related differen- closer to the sale price, their 2015
tial. Here again, the assessments tax bill would have been about
produced by Berrios’ office vio- $5,500 less. As it is, that bill
lated professional standards, the represents 7.25 percent of the price
analysis by ProPublica Illinois and the Doyles paid for the building, a
the Tribune found. figure known as the effective tax
The assessor’s office said it does
not conduct sales ratio studies for
any class of property, though
rate. The effective tax rate of the
office tower that sold for $825
million, on the other hand, was
industry experts say doing so is about 2.1 percent in 2015.
standard practice. That suggests For a business that is already
the office made little or no effort to struggling, the taxes are a huge
understand how accurate its valu- burden. The Doyles said most of
ations were before sending assess- the children who attend Sweet Pea
ment notices to property owners receive child care assistance from
like the Doyles. the state, which held back pay-
Comparing the assessor’s esti- ments during the budget impasse,
mates to sale prices is more adding to their troubles.
complicated for commercial and “We’ve been scuffling to get by,”
industrial properties than it is for said Brenda Doyle, who said she
residential homes. Some real es- has worked in child care for more
tate investors may overpay for a than 20 years. “Having that (prop-
property in order to gain a tax erty tax) money would be a big
write-off or other financial benefit, thing for us. We could use a new
for example. air conditioner. The roof needs to
Despite those nuances, howev- be replaced. We’d like to give our
er, agencies around the world — employees bonuses.”
including the Illinois Department
of Revenue — conduct sales ratio A lucrative industry
studies for all classes of property,
no matter how chaotic the markets For many commercial and in-
may be at the time. dustrial property owners in Cook
Amid the hustle and bustle of County, appealing inaccurate first-
obtaining a day care license, hiring
staffers and renovating the Sweet Turn to Taxes, Next Page
14 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, December 10, 2017 B

THE TAX DIVIDE

Taxes, from Previous Page
pass assessments has be-
come routine, helping to
fuel a tax appeal industry
that received more reduc-
tions under Berrios than in
prior years.
A ProPublica Illinois-
Chicago Tribune analysis of
appeals data found that
Berrios granted appeals for
more than 34,000 commer-
cial and industrial parcels in
the 2012 Chicago reas-
sessment and for about the
same number again in 2015.
By contrast, former As-
sessor Houlihan approved
sessment system requires an
appeals process to ensure
fairness and accuracy, and
many jurisdictions across
the country saw an uptick in
appeals following the finan-
cial crisis, experts said. But
the number of appeals in
Cook County is extraordi-
narily high, far exceeding
the total in New York, for
example.
These appeals support an
industry that provides more
than half of Berrios’ cam-
paign funds.
Although residential
properties account for the
bulk of real estate parcels in
Illinois and the Tribune.
The law firms that handle
the appeals are paid either a
retainer, a percentage of the
tax savings or a combination
of both.
Appeals data from the
assessor’s office represent
the best available means of
estimating these law firms’
volume of business. The
analysis examined each ap-
peal, sought to identify the
attorney and law firm that
filed it and calculated the
reduction granted by the
assessor.
The data set includes a
small group of unique, high-
industrial properties. Many
of the power players in those
firms are well-known in Chi-
cago and Illinois politics.
When Illinois House
Speaker Michael Madigan is
not overseeing legislation
moving through Springfield
or deciding which politician
will get his support as the
state Democratic Party
chairman, he works for his
tax appeal law firm, Madi-
gan & Getzendanner.
A Berrios ally, Madigan is
a founding partner in the
six-member firm that has
filed appeals on nearly $8.6
billion in assessed value TONIKA JOHNSON/PROPUBLICA ILLINOIS

only 17,596 appeals in 2009 the county, commercial and value properties — about since Berrios took office in
— and that was the largest industrial appeals are con- 200 — that the assessor’s December 2010, the most of
number since at least 2003. siderably more lucrative for office does not value in the any firm, according to the
Under Berrios, the analy- the tax appeal industry be- usual way. For these “letter appeals analysis.
sis found, more than 70 cause the parcels are far properties,” the office pro- From 2011 to 2016, Madi-
percent of all commercial
and industrial appeals filed
more valuable and the ap-
peals more complex.
duces an estimate based on
specific data requested from
gan & Getzendanner won
reductions of 20 percent
with the assessor’s office Between 2003 and 2016, the owner. These initial esti- from the initial values of
resulted in reductions be- the county granted more mates can be challenged their clients’ properties, to-
tween 2011 and 2015, com- than $46 billion in reduc- through “re-review,” a proc- taling nearly $1.7 billion, the
pared with 48 percent dur- tions from $193 billion in ess similar to an appeal. analysis found.
ing the previous five-year commercial and industrial About a dozen law firms In a statement, Madigan
period. assessments, according to account for the bulk of the spokesman Steve Brown
Every property tax as- an analysis by ProPublica appeals for commercial and said the appeals process is
crucial for property owners
“seeking to exercise their
constitutional right to en-
sure their assessment is
uniform.”
“Neither this firm nor any
other property tax firm play
any role whatsoever in first
pass assessments,” he wrote.
“Rather, property tax firms
get involved after the first
pass assessment and repre-
sent clients.”
Brown also disputed the
appeals analysis, saying the
firm’s records show its ap-
peals resulted in roughly $1
billion in reductions. How-
ever, he declined to provide
any supporting information
to counter the analysis of
the assessor’s data.
Klafter & Burke — led by
All Projects Designed & Built by Airoom Architects, Builders, & Remodele
Chicago’s most powerful al-
Site Location: Winnetka derman and another Berrios
ally, Edward Burke — filed
appeals on more than $4.7
LAST CHANCE billion in commercial and
industrial assessed values
TO LOCK IN between 2011 and 2016, ac-
cording to the analysis. The
firm won reductions of
2017 PRICING $864.9 million, or 18 per-
cent, the records show.
FOR YOUR 2018 Burke did not respond to
requests for comment.
Other firms have strong
REMODELING PROJECT family ties to the assessor’s
office or employ people who
used to work there.
Christopher Crowley,
847-268-2178 | AIROOMHOME.COM Berrios’ chief deputy asses-
sor, is the son of James
Crowley, who is listed as a
tax consultant on the web-
With everyone in town again for the holidays, you site of the Crane and Nor-
cross law firm.
may be considering that addition or remodeling That firm, which did not
project now more than ever. December will be respond to requests for
comment, filed appeals on
your last chance to lock in 2017 pricing. nearly $7.9 billion in com-
mercial and industrial initial
values since Berrios took
Reserve by December 31st for 6%-10% of savings! office, winning reductions
on 23 percent of the total
CALL FOR A FREE REMODELING CONSULTATION assessed value, or $1.8 bil-
lion, according to the analy-
sis.
Before joining Berrios,
Christopher Crowley
owned a stake in Madison
Appraisal, a firm that Crane
and Norcross regularly
hired to do appraisals for its
assessment appeals. (Unlike
residential appeals, nearly
every commercial and in-
dustrial appeal involves an
HOME DESIGN SHOWROOM appraisal.)
The close connections in
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M m erty owners feeling like they
are forced to play along in a
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Call for details. Contract must be signed by 12/31/17. tain players.
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Ghian Foreman, executive director of Greater Southwest
Development Corp.: “This system gives us a handicap.”
How we analyzed
assessments, appeals
To examine the fairness and accuracy of
commercial and industrial property assessments
under Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, as
well as the appeals process, the Chicago Tribune
and ProPublica Illinois conducted three analyses.
For details, visit chicagotribune.com/
methodology.
■ The assessor’s initial valuations — known as
first-pass values — were examined to determine
how many remained unchanged over multiple
reassessment periods. The analysis covered the
triennial reassessments for the city of Chicago
from 2003 through 2015. It included only those
commercial and industrial parcels that had no
change in Property Index Number, or PIN, from
2003 through 2009 (under former Assessor James
Houlihan) and from 2009 through 2015 (under
current Assessor Berrios). In each case the sample
size was about 40,000 parcels, or about three-
quarters of the total number of commercial and
industrial parcels in the city.
■ Sales ratio studies, which compare the asses-
sor’s valuations with actual sales prices, were
carried out for all commercial and industrial
assessments in Cook County from 2011 through
2015. The sales used to calculate ratios were
limited to arm’s-length transactions that occurred
in the same calendar years in which a triennial
reassessment took place. Statistical tests were
included in the analysis to measure accuracy and
regressivity, or the tendency to overvalue low-
priced properties and undervalue high-priced
properties.
■ Appeals of commercial and industrial assess-
ments in Cook County were analyzed to see which
law firms filed the most appeals during Berrios’
tenure, which had the largest market share in
terms of property value and which won the largest
amount of total reductions. Data from the
assessor’s office were standardized and aggre-
gated by law firm. Appeals dating to 2003 also
were analyzed to allow comparisons between the
tenures of Berrios and Houlihan.
THE SERIES
To read previous Tax Divide stories, visit chicago
tribune.com/taxdivide
trying to keep and attract a reduction. And in each
good jobs in our communi- reassessment, after the re-
ties, this system gives us a duction was granted, the
handicap,” said Ghian Fore- number bounced right back
man, executive director of to that initial value,
the Greater Southwest De- $13,455,132.
velopment Corp. and an The next chance Berrios’
industrial property owner. office has to value the prop-
“We need to make sure it’s erty comes in 2018.
fair to all business owners,
and the best way to do that is Jason Grotto, who currently
make sure the process is works for ProPublica Illinois,
done right.” completed the first three in-
Among clients Crane and stallments of “The Tax Di-
Norcross has represented — vide” as a reporter for the
and that Madison appraised Chicago Tribune and is con-
— was the owner of the tinuing the investigation as
brick building on the North- part of a Tribune-ProPublica
west Side that the assessor’s Illinois collaboration. Sand-
office valued at $13,455,132 hya Kambhampati is a data
in 2009, 2012 and 2015. reporter with ProPublica Illi-
The owner, a New York nois, which is an independ-
investment firm, hired ent, nonprofit journalism or-
Crane and Norcross to file ganization. Chicago Tribune
an appeal with the assessor reporter Ray Long and for-
in each of those years. Each mer Tribune reporter David
time, Berrios’ office granted Kidwell contributed.

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 Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune Sunday, December 10, 2017 Breaking news at chicago

THE TAX DIVIDE

Why
Assessor’s estimates chief
of ma
defy logic, benefit lawyers Sunday, December 10, 2017
had t
Claypool’s
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By Bill Rut
and Hal Da
Chicago Tribun

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JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE he offered w
CookCook County
County Assessor
Assessor Joseph
Joseph Berrios Berrios by
is required is required byrevalue
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A new analysis of commercial properties finds

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thousands of identical values, high error rates

TRIBUNE WATCHDOG | THE TAX DIVIDE Turn to Eman

Assessor’s estimates defy logic,

By Jason Grotto and Sandhya Kambhampati | A Chicago Tribune/ProPublica Illinois collaboration
Aging bo
A
mid the most tumul- defies any logical explanation cottage industry of politically industrial properties — known
tuous real estate market except one: powerful tax attorneys. as first-pass values — that did facing sh

benefit lawyers
since the Great Depres- Berrios failed at one of his And because commercial not change.
sion, Cook County Assessor most important responsibili- and industrial properties as a For example, as the financial of caregi
Joseph Berrios produced valu- ties — estimating the value of group were not assessed prop- crisis cratered the real estate Few qualified
ations for thousands of com- commercial and industrial erly, residential homeowners market in 2009, Berrios’ pred- rising costs an
mercial and industrial proper- properties. across the county were forced ecessor estimated the value of demographic
A new analysis of commercial properties finds thousands
ties in Chicago that did not
change from one reassessment
What’s more, a separate
analysis reveals commercial
to carry an additional and
unnecessary burden, paying
a stout brick building in a
bustling commercial area on
newly minted
ing a crisis. Bu
to the next, not even by a single and industrial property assess- more in property taxes than Chicago’s Northwest Side at
dollar. of identical values, high error rates
That fact, one finding in an
ments throughout Cook
County were so riddled with
they would have otherwise.
State law says the assessor
$13,455,132.
Three years later, in 2012,
unprecedented ProPublica errors that they created deep must revalue property every Berrios had taken office and As Trum
By Jason Grotto and Sandhya Kambhampati
Illinois-Chicago Tribune anal-
ysis of tens of thousands of
inequities, punishing small
businesses while cutting a
three years. Yet Berrios, using
methods hidden from the pub-
the commercial real estate
market had come roaring back. rights m
A Chicago Tribune/ProPublica Illinois collaboration
property records, points to a
conclusion that experts say
break to owners of high-value
properties and helping fuel a
lic, repeatedly produced initial
valuations of commercial and
Turn to Taxes, Page 12
tribute, t
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visit to Missis
County Assessor Joseph Berrios produced valuations for thousands of commercial Nation & Wo

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and industrial gains new fame that
in Chicago for did ‘Hey not Black
change from Child’ one reassessment to
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of commercial and industrial properties.
For a long time, if you looks very much alive, a known (and most misiden- the 1960s and
stumbled across the poetry testament to his years as a tified) poem, with a note sought to distance its art
’70s, which
ABEL URIBE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
170th yea
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of UseniWhat’s more,long-distance
Eugene Perkins, a separate runner.analysis reveals
Still, explaining commercial
that Perkins and influences,
is from European industrial property
Useni as-
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there was a fair chance you confusion over his legacy the author, not Cullen, a encouraging fresh Afro- Chicago writer and social
thought you were reading has lasted for decades. reader left this comment: worker, was a leader of the
the work of Maya Angelou. Also, he is not Langston “You insult my black herit- Turn to Perkins, Page 10 Black Arts Movement.

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Folgers Coffee
22.6-30.5 oz. Cans
sessments throughout Cook County were so riddled with errors that they created
deep inequities, punishing small businesses while cutting a break to owners of high-
value properties and helping fuel a cottage industry of politically powerful tax at-
torneys.
And because commercial and industrial properties as a group were not assessed
properly, residential homeowners across the county were forced to carry an ad-
ditional and unnecessary burden, paying more in property taxes than they would
have otherwise.
State law says the assessor must revalue property every three years. Yet Berrios,
using methods hidden from the public, repeatedly produced initial valuations of
commercial and industrial properties — known as first-pass values — that did not
change.
For example, as the financial crisis cratered the real estate market in 2009, Ber-
rios’ predecessor estimated the value of a stout brick building in a bustling commer-
cial area on Chicago’s Northwest Side at $13,455,132.
Three years later, in 2012, Berrios had taken office and the commercial real
estate market had come roaring back. Yet the assessor’s estimate did not change:
$13,455,132.
In 2015, as the market continued to climb, Berrios’ office once again arrived at
the same number: $13,455,132.
Three straight reassessments. Three identical values.
Given the complexity of the commercial real estate market and its dynamic na-
ture, experts say it is inconceivable for such values to remain the same over time.
But an analysis of more than 40,000 parcels of commercial and industrial prop-
erty in Chicago shows that, under Berrios, more than two-thirds had identical first-
pass values in at least two consecutive reassessments.
Nearly a fourth of the parcels — pieces of real estate that receive their own as-
sessment and tax bill — had the same initial value for the Chicago reassessments of
2009, 2012 and 2015.
Under Berrios’ predecessor, James Houlihan, just 1 percent of parcels saw no
change over two or more reassessments conducted in 2003, 2006 and 2009.
“For values to stay exactly the same, that indicates they aren’t doing anything,”
said Peter Davis, an expert on assessments who helped write standards for the In-
ternational Association of Assessing Officers, a professional organization that de-
velops guidelines used around the world.
“If your models are working correctly, the chances of values staying exactly the
same are virtually impossible.”
Berrios already is under fire for producing inaccurate residential assessments
that burdened poorer homeowners, problems the Tribune’s series “The Tax Di-
vide” uncovered in June. Berrios, who is up for re-election next year, testified before
the county board about his methods in July, and Board President Toni Preckwinkle
ordered a study of residential assessments.
The new findings on commercial and industrial valuations expose many of the
same flaws, with the assessor’s office generally undervaluing expensive downtown
buildings while overvaluing small businesses in poorer neighborhoods.
In 2014, for instance, a building on Oak Street in the Gold Coast neighborhood
sold for $14.9 million. The next year, the assessor’s office valued the building at $3.6
million — less than a quarter of the sales price. A year after that, in 2016, the building
sold for even more: $23 million.
Eight miles west, a small industrial shop in the working-class Belmont Cen-
tral neighborhood sold for $110,000 in 2015. The assessor’s estimate that year was
$207,140, nearly double the sale price.
 ZBIGNIEW BZDAK/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Brenda Doyle, left, daughter Jamilah and Jamilah’s father run a day care in Chicago. A month after the Doyles bought the
building for $205,000 in 2015, a notice from the county assessor pegged the value at $324,700.

The effects of flawed commercial and industrial valuations aren’t limited to peo-
ple who own businesses. Owners of residential properties, as a group, also ended up
paying more in property taxes than they would have if the assessor’s office had done
its work properly.
The total amount of property taxes levied in a given year is fixed, so if one group
of property owners doesn’t pay its fair share, others have to make up the difference.
And for years, the county has significantly undervalued commercial and industrial
properties as a class, according to the ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune analysis
as well as studies conducted by the Illinois Department of Revenue. That means the
estimated total value of those properties, after appeals, was on average less than it
should have been.
The extra burden on homeowners was even greater for people who owned
lower-priced properties, because the assessor already tended to overvalue them in
comparison with other homes.
The assessor’s office encourages property owners to file an appeal if they are dis-
satisfied with an assessment. In cases where officials did not change a property’s
initial estimate from one reassessment to the next, the vast majority of the owners
appealed, government records show.
Seventy-four percent of those owners won reductions from the assessor — only
to see the values snap right back to the same number in the next reassessment.
“There is no rationale for having no change in these initial valuations,” said Rich-
ard Almy, former executive director of the International Association of Assessing
Officers. “Especially if the assessor later agreed to a reduction, there’s no earthly
reason for them to go back to the same value.”
The repetitive process feeds a property tax appeal industry that provides the bulk
of Berrios’ campaign contributions. Inaccurate assessments also help drive business
to political allies who are property tax attorneys, including Illinois House Speaker
Michael Madigan, the longest-serving state house speaker in U.S. history, and Ald.
Edward Burke, the longtime chair of the Chicago City Council’s finance committee.
The office’s deputy assessor for communications, Tom Shaer, did not explain
Once rare, identical values become common
Thousands of value estimates produced under Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios did not change from one
reassessment to the next. Experts in assessments said that is next to impossible in the commercial market.

FOR ABOUT 40,000 COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL PARCELS IN CHICAGO:

Under James Houlihan Under Joseph Berrios

1.1% had at least two identical

first-pass values for the
reassessment years of 2003, 2006 and
67.4% had at least two
identical first-pass
values for the reassessment years of 2009,
2009. This includes 0.08% of properties 2012 and 2015. This includes 23% of
that had three identical values. properties that had three identical values.

NOTE: First data set includes 39,758 parcels; second data set includes 40,284 parcels

SOURCE: ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune analysis of Cook County data CHICAGO TRIBUNE

why thousands of first-pass values were identical over multiple reassessments un-
der Berrios. The other findings from ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune are mis-
leading, he said, and do not “do justice to the complexity” of Cook County’s assess-
ment system.
“The study includes five years of the real estate crash,” Shaer wrote in an emailed
response. “The crash played havoc with figures in certain industry measures used
for this story, making them unreliable when evaluating the assessor’s work.”
Shaer also defended the office’s reliance on the appeals process.
“Appeals of commercial and industrial property are extremely effective in giving
the assessor’s office the most complete and updated information,” he wrote. “If not
for the appeal process, Cook County would need hundreds of financial personnel to
initially obtain that information — at a cost of more than $32 million per year.”
Cook County’s deeply flawed assessment system is a source of vexation for many
commercial property owners, said Elizabeth Holland, CEO of Chicago-based com-
mercial real estate company Abbell Associates, which owns property all over the
Midwest.
“It’s a system that we don’t see anywhere else in the country,” said Holland, a for-
mer chair of the International Council of Shopping Centers. “They are not doing an
accurate job of assessing property, and I think it’s a frustration for everyone I know
who owns commercial real estate here.
“It means time, effort and money because they make you hire lawyers to appeal
inaccurate assessments.”

‘Not doing the work’

With more than 1.8 million parcels of property ranging from skyscrapers and
bungalows to steel mills and condominiums, Cook County has one of the most com-
plex property tax bases in the country.
For assessment purposes, most properties consist of a single parcel of real estate.
But some have multiple parcels, each of which receives its own assessment and its
own tax bill.
Assessing all that real estate is difficult — and time-consuming. Berrios says his
predecessors in the assessor’s office failed to get the work done on time for more
than three decades.
The tardiness delayed property tax bills from going out and forced taxing bodies
across the county to take out loans, known as tax anticipation notes, to tide them
over until property taxes came in, costing taxpayers money for interest and fees.
 ERIN HOOLEY/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
From 2009 to 2015, the county assessor’s office produced three identical estimates of the value of this building at West
Logan Boulevard and North Elston Avenue in Chicago, shown last month.

That changed when Berrios took office.

Despite economic upheaval and budget cuts that slashed the assessor’s staff, Ber-
rios finished assessments on schedule, which helped other agencies get the tax bills
out on time. In fending off criticism of his tenure, he’s repeatedly pointed to this
feat, crediting his office for saving county taxpayers $5 million to $6 million a month
in interest costs.
“Our staff is 25 percent smaller than when I took office,” he told county commis-
sioners at the July hearing. “But we still get the job done right. The assessment cycle
has been completed either on time or early six years in a row, after the previous as-
sessors were late for 34 years straight.”
State law requires the assessor to revalue property every three years. Unlike resi-
dential properties, which are valued en masse using computer programs, the as-
sessor’s office values commercial and industrial properties individually on spread-
sheets grouped by type and neighborhood, according to interviews with current
and former staff.
Doing it that way is necessary because these properties don’t sell as often as resi-
dential homes, making it harder and more time-consuming to estimate their market
value.
To produce estimates as close as possible to the price a property might fetch on
the open market, the assessor’s staff must gather and analyze reams of market data
— including rents and expenses per square foot, sales information, vacancy rates
and other indicators.
In a dynamic market like Chicago, which the assessor’s office says has about
50,000 commercial and industrial parcels, the factors that go into these complex
calculations are constantly changing. So the estimated values should fluctuate as
well.
But for tens of thousands of these Chicago parcels, the assessor’s office’s first-
pass values did not change at all over two or even three reassessment periods, coun-
ty data show.
About 20,000 commercial and industrial parcels had the exact same estimates
in 2009 and 2012. An additional 15,800 did not change between 2012 and 2015. And
the estimates for more than 9,000 parcels were identical for all three of those reas-
sessments.
The data were analyzed by parcel, not property, because more complex proper-
ties can include multiple parcels with different uses. For example, a building may
house retail stores, office space and a garage, with each segment valued separately.
Thus it’s possible for valuations in one segment to change while other segments stay
the same.
It is impossible to know exactly why the duplicate estimates occurred. In Jan-
uary 2016, the assessor’s office denied the Tribune’s open-records request for the
market rents and expenses, vacancy rates and other variables it used to calculate the
value of commercial and industrial properties.
The newspaper sued the office in Cook County Circuit Court, and last Decem-
ber a judge ordered the assessor to turn over the records. But Berrios appealed the
ruling — at taxpayer expense — so the values the office used remain secret for now.
Reports from a federal court monitor overseeing Berrios’ hiring practices, mean-
while, found some key people working inside the assessor’s office had little idea
how values were determined.
In one critical department, the staff had “little to no background as to how some
values are actually derived and approved,” wrote retired Circuit Court Judge Clif-
ford Meacham in his December 2014 report.
In his early days as assessor, Berrios fired more than a dozen employees, includ-
ing some of the office’s most knowledgeable and experienced workers, according to
the monitor’s reports and interviews with current and former staff.
Shaer defended Berrios’ hiring decisions.
“We had done our due diligence to determine which employees could normally
be replaced when administrations change,” Shaer said in his statement. “There’s
often a difference of opinion when it comes to terminations.”
In interviews, experts on assessments said the thousands of duplicate estimates
suggest that Berrios’ staff skipped or disregarded the calculations necessary to value
those parcels.
Then, if property owners filed appeals, the estimates could be updated later. Es-
sentially, the experts said, Berrios relied upon the appeals process to arrive at the
assessor’s final valuations.
“There are 100 excuses they’ll give for not doing the work,” said Davis, the as-
sessment expert who helped draft industry standards. “But it means they are basi-
cally coming up with values through negotiations.”

A familiar pattern
The owners of Sweet Pea Academy, a day care in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham
neighborhood, knew as soon as they received the first assessment notice for their
one-story building that something was off.
Brenda and Larry Doyle, who started the day care with their daughter Jamilah,
bought the building in 2015 for $205,000. When they received their first notice from
the assessor a month later, however, the property’s value was pegged at $324,700.
“It’s ridiculous,” Larry Doyle said. “There are a lot of businesses in the area that
have the same thing happening, and we’re all pissed off about it.”
Farther west, on West 79th Street, the owner of a pest control business purchased
a small storefront in 2012 for $60,000. The assessor valued it at $111,028 that year.
And when 2015 rolled around, the value didn’t budge.
Meanwhile, the owners of an office tower at 300 N. LaSalle Drive got much bet-
ter news from the assessor. The building along the Chicago River had sold in 2014
 JOHN J. KIM/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
In 2014, the office tower at 300 N. LaSalle Drive sold for $850 million — at the time, the highest single-building office
sale in Chicago history. A year later, the assessor valued the building at just $392 million.

for $850 million — at the time, the highest single-building office sale in Chicago his-
tory. A year later, the assessor valued the building at just $392 million, less than half
the sale price.
It’s a pattern that’s both familiar and deeply unfair.
When the Tribune studied residential assessments under Berrios, the newspa-
per found high error rates as well as a tendency to give expensive properties a break
at the expense of poorer homeowners. The same holds true for commercial and
industrial real estate.
The basic method of testing the accuracy of assessments is to use properties that
have sold to see how well the assessor’s estimates compare to actual market values.
The analysis is called a sales ratio study because it involves dividing the assessor’s
estimates by the sales prices to calculate ratios.
No assessment system produces 100 percent accurate results, so the next step is
to run statistics that show whether errors fall within acceptable standards. The most
common test of accuracy is the coefficient of dispersion, or COD. It is, essentially, an
error rate. For income-producing properties, the International Association of As-
sessing Officers sets the acceptable level of COD at 20. That means assessments are
off by an average of 20 percent.
Under Berrios, the scores for commercial and industrial first-pass valuations
have been as high as 133, ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune found. Though experts
often allow complex jurisdictions like Cook County some leeway, they said those
results are unacceptable.
The errors also have a bias. With lower-priced commercial and industrial prop-
erties, the assessor’s estimates tend to come in too high. At higher price points, as-
sessments are often too low.
Known as regressivity, this pattern means the property tax system is unfair to
people who own lower-value properties. Those taxpayers end up paying more, rela-
tive to the value of their property, than others do.
Assessing experts measure regressivity with a statistical test called the price-re-
lated differential. Here again, the assessments produced by Berrios’ office violated
professional standards, the analysis by ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune found.
The assessor’s office said it does not conduct sales ratio studies for any class of
property, though industry experts say doing so is standard practice. That suggests
the office made little or no effort to understand how accurate its valuations were
before sending assessment notices to property owners like the Doyles.
Comparing the assessor’s estimates to sale prices is more complicated for com-
mercial and industrial properties than it is for residential homes. Some real estate
investors may overpay for a property in order to gain a tax write-off or other finan-
cial benefit, for example.
Despite those nuances, however, agencies around the world — including the Illi-
nois Department of Revenue — conduct sales ratio studies for all classes of property,
no matter how chaotic the markets may be at the time.
Amid the hustle and bustle of obtaining a day care license, hiring staffers and
renovating the Sweet Pea building to accommodate infants and toddlers, the Doyles
said they didn’t hire an attorney to appeal their inflated assessment.
The result was a $14,875 tax bill that the Doyles say was difficult to pay. Had the
property been valued closer to the sale price, their 2015 tax bill would have been
about $5,500 less. As it is, that bill represents 7.25 percent of the price the Doyles
paid for the building, a figure known as the effective tax rate. The effective tax rate
of the office tower that sold for $825 million, on the other hand, was about 2.1 per-
cent in 2015.
For a business that is already struggling, the taxes are a huge burden. The Doyles
said most of the children who attend Sweet Pea receive child care assistance from
the state, which held back payments during the budget impasse, adding to their
troubles.
“We’ve been scuffling to get by,” said Brenda Doyle, who said she has worked in
child care for more than 20 years. “Having that (property tax) money would be a
big thing for us. We could use a new air conditioner. The roof needs to be replaced.
We’d like to give our employees bonuses.”

A lucrative industry
For many commercial and industrial property owners in Cook County, appealing
inaccurate first-pass assessments has become routine, helping to fuel a tax appeal
industry that received more reductions under Berrios than in prior years.
A ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune analysis of appeals data found that Ber-
rios granted appeals for more than 34,000 commercial and industrial parcels in the
2012 Chicago reassessment and for about the same number again in 2015.
By contrast, former Assessor Houlihan approved only 17,596 appeals in 2009 —
and that was the largest number since at least 2003.
Under Berrios, the analysis found, more than 70 percent of all commercial and
industrial appeals filed with the assessor’s office resulted in reductions between
2011 and 2015, compared with 48 percent during the previous five-year period.
Every property tax assessment system requires an appeals process to ensure fair-
ness and accuracy, and many jurisdictions across the country saw an uptick in ap-
peals following the financial crisis, experts said. But the number of appeals in Cook
County is extraordinarily high, far exceeding the total in New York, for example.
These appeals support an industry that provides more than half of Berrios’ cam-
paign funds.
Although residential properties account for the bulk of real estate parcels in the
county, commercial and industrial appeals are considerably more lucrative for the
tax appeal industry because the parcels are far more valuable and the appeals more
complex.
 TONIKA JOHNSON/PROPUBLICA ILLINOIS
Ghian Foreman, executive director of Greater Southwest Development Corp.: “This system gives us a handicap.”

Between 2003 and 2016, the county granted more than $46 billion in reductions
from $193 billion in commercial and industrial assessments, according to an analy-
sis by ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune. The law firms that handle the appeals are
paid either a retainer, a percentage of the tax savings or a combination of both.
Appeals data from the assessor’s office represent the best available means of es-
timating these law firms’ volume of business. The analysis examined each appeal,
sought to identify the attorney and law firm that filed it and calculated the reduction
granted by the assessor.
The data set includes a small group of unique, high-value properties — about
200 — that the assessor’s office does not value in the usual way. For these “letter
properties,” the office produces an estimate based on specific data requested from
the owner. These initial estimates can be challenged through “re-review,” a process
similar to an appeal.
About a dozen law firms account for the bulk of the appeals for commercial and
industrial properties. Many of the power players in those firms are well-known in
Chicago and Illinois politics.
When Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is not overseeing legislation
moving through Springfield or deciding which politician will get his support as the
state Democratic Party chairman, he works for his tax appeal law firm, Madigan &
Getzendanner.
A Berrios ally, Madigan is a founding partner in the six-member firm that has
filed appeals on nearly $8.6 billion in assessed value since Berrios took office in De-
cember 2010, the most of any firm, according to the appeals analysis.
From 2011 to 2016, Madigan & Getzendanner won reductions of 20 percent from
the initial values of their clients’ properties, totaling nearly $1.7 billion, the analysis
found.
In a statement, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said the appeals process is cru-
cial for property owners “seeking to exercise their constitutional right to ensure
their assessment is uniform.”
“Neither this firm nor any other property tax firm play any role whatsoever in
first pass assessments,” he wrote. “Rather, property tax firms get involved after the
first pass assessment and represent clients.”
Brown also disputed the appeals analysis, saying the firm’s records show its ap-
peals resulted in roughly $1 billion in reductions. However, he declined to provide
any supporting information to counter the analysis of the assessor’s data.
Klafter & Burke — led by Chicago’s most powerful alderman and another Berrios
ally, Edward Burke — filed appeals on more than $4.7 billion in commercial and in-
dustrial assessed values between 2011 and 2016, according to the analysis. The firm
won reductions of $864.9 million, or 18 percent, the records show.
Burke did not respond to requests for comment.
Other firms have strong family ties to the assessor’s office or employ people who
used to work there.
Christopher Crowley, Berrios’ chief deputy assessor, is the son of James Crowley,
who is listed as a tax consultant on the website of the Crane and Norcross law firm.
That firm, which did not respond to requests for comment, filed appeals on near-
ly $7.9 billion in commercial and industrial initial values since Berrios took office,
winning reductions on 23 percent of the total assessed value, or $1.8 billion, accord-
ing to the analysis.
Before joining Berrios, Christopher Crowley owned a stake in Madison Apprais-
al, a firm that Crane and Norcross regularly hired to do appraisals for its assessment
appeals. (Unlike residential appeals, nearly every commercial and industrial appeal
involves an appraisal.)
The close connections in the system leave many property owners feeling like
they are forced to play along in a game set up to benefit certain players.
“In an era when we are trying to keep and attract good jobs in our communi-
ties, this system gives us a handicap,” said Ghian Foreman, executive director of the
Greater Southwest Development Corp. and an industrial property owner. “We need
to make sure it’s fair to all business owners, and the best way to do that is make sure
the process is done right.”
Among clients Crane and Norcross has represented — and that Madison ap-
praised — was the owner of the brick building on the Northwest Side that the asses-
sor’s office valued at $13,455,132 in 2009, 2012 and 2015.
The owner, a New York investment firm, hired Crane and Norcross to file an
appeal with the assessor in each of those years. Each time, Berrios’ office granted a
reduction. And in each reassessment, after the reduction was granted, the number
bounced right back to that initial value, $13,455,132.
The next chance Berrios’ office has to value the property comes in 2018.

Jason Grotto, who currently works for ProPublica Illinois, completed the first three
installments of “The Tax Divide” as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and is con-
tinuing the investigation as part of a Tribune-ProPublica Illinois collaboration.
Sandhya Kambhampati is a data reporter with ProPublica Illinois, which is an inde-
pendent, nonprofit journalism organization. Chicago Tribune reporter Ray Long and
former Tribune reporter David Kidwell contributed.
Law firms do big business
Madigan & Getzendanner, a six-member firm where Illinois House
Speaker Michael Madigan is a founding partner, stands at the top of
the commercial and industrial appeals market in Cook County,
according to an analysis of appeals data from the assessor’s office.
COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL APPEALS, 2011-2016

Total Reductions Number

initial value granted by of parcels
Law firm appealed assessor appealed
Madigan & Getzendanner $8.6B $1.7B 4,283
Crane and Norcross $7.9B $1.8B 16,611
O’Keefe Lyons & Hynes $5.0B $851.3M 4,485
Klafter & Burke $4.7B $864.9M 9,526
Worsek & Vihon $3.0B $784.5M 6,078
Eugene L. Griffin & Associates $2.9B $618.8M 4,693
Thomas M. Tully & Associates $2.9B $756.4M 4,273
Liston & Tsantilis $2.8B $725.2M 7,675
Mayer Brown $2.2B $439.2M 1,265
Sarnoff & Baccash $2.1B $555.2M 7,865

SOURCE: ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune analysis

of Cook County assessor's office appeals data

How complex properties are assessed

The basic building blocks of the assessment system are called parcels.
Each parcel is identified using a Property Index Number, or PIN, and
receives a separate assessment and a separate tax bill. Most properties
contain only one parcel, but more complex properties can include
multiple parcels with different uses.
PIN
Office segment
The office space in
this building
includes multiple
PINs. Each PIN
receives a value in
proportion to its
share of the
segment as a whole.

Garage segment
This garage space
has only one PIN
and is valued
separately.

Retail segment
This segment may
include multiple
businesses, such as
bank branches or
pharmacies, yet is
valued as a single PIN.

Parking lot
segment
Parking lots are also
valued separately and
sometimes include multiple PINs.

SOURCE: ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune reporting

Standards of accuracy, fairness not met

In Cook County, first-pass valuations of commercial and industrial
properties have repeatedly violated standards for accuracy (COD) and
for regressivity (PRD).
COEFFICIENT OF DISPERSION PRICE-RELATED DIFFERENTIAL
150 3.0

100 2.0

50 1.0
Industry
standard:
0.98 to 1.03
Industry standard: 5 to 20*

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

* Assessing experts allow complex jurisdictions some leeway

SOURCE: ProPublica Illinois-Chicago Tribune

analysis of Cook County data CHICAGO TRIBUNE
14 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Sunday, December 10, 2017 B

THE TAX DIVIDE

Taxes, from Previous Page
pass assessments has be-
come routine, helping to
fuel a tax appeal industry
that received more reduc-
tions under Berrios than in
prior years.
A ProPublica Illinois-
Chicago Tribune analysis of
appeals data found that
Berrios granted appeals for
more than 34,000 commer-
cial and industrial parcels in
the 2012 Chicago reas-
sessment and for about the
same number again in 2015.
By contrast, former As-
sessor Houlihan approved
sessment system requires an
appeals process to ensure
fairness and accuracy, and
many jurisdictions across
the country saw an uptick in
appeals following the finan-
cial crisis, experts said. But
the number of appeals in
Cook County is extraordi-
narily high, far exceeding
the total in New York, for
example.
These appeals support an
industry that provides more
than half of Berrios’ cam-
paign funds.
Although residential
properties account for the
bulk of real estate parcels in
Illinois and the Tribune.
The law firms that handle
the appeals are paid either a
retainer, a percentage of the
tax savings or a combination
of both.
Appeals data from the
assessor’s office represent
the best available means of
estimating these law firms’
volume of business. The
analysis examined each ap-
peal, sought to identify the
attorney and law firm that
filed it and calculated the
reduction granted by the
assessor.
The data set includes a
small group of unique, high-
industrial properties. Many
of the power players in those
firms are well-known in Chi-
cago and Illinois politics.
When Illinois House
Speaker Michael Madigan is
not overseeing legislation
moving through Springfield
or deciding which politician
will get his support as the
state Democratic Party
chairman, he works for his
tax appeal law firm, Madi-
gan & Getzendanner.
A Berrios ally, Madigan is
a founding partner in the
six-member firm that has
filed appeals on nearly $8.6
billion in assessed value TONIKA JOHNSON/PROPUBLICA ILLINOIS

only 17,596 appeals in 2009 the county, commercial and value properties — about since Berrios took office in
— and that was the largest industrial appeals are con- 200 — that the assessor’s December 2010, the most of
number since at least 2003. siderably more lucrative for office does not value in the any firm, according to the
Under Berrios, the analy- the tax appeal industry be- usual way. For these “letter appeals analysis.
sis found, more than 70 cause the parcels are far properties,” the office pro- From 2011 to 2016, Madi-
percent of all commercial
and industrial appeals filed
more valuable and the ap-
peals more complex.
duces an estimate based on
specific data requested from
gan & Getzendanner won
reductions of 20 percent
with the assessor’s office Between 2003 and 2016, the owner. These initial esti- from the initial values of
resulted in reductions be- the county granted more mates can be challenged their clients’ properties, to-
tween 2011 and 2015, com- than $46 billion in reduc- through “re-review,” a proc- taling nearly $1.7 billion, the
pared with 48 percent dur- tions from $193 billion in ess similar to an appeal. analysis found.
ing the previous five-year commercial and industrial About a dozen law firms In a statement, Madigan
period. assessments, according to account for the bulk of the spokesman Steve Brown
Every property tax as- an analysis by ProPublica appeals for commercial and said the appeals process is
crucial for property owners
“seeking to exercise their
constitutional right to en-
sure their assessment is
uniform.”
“Neither this firm nor any
other property tax firm play
any role whatsoever in first
pass assessments,” he wrote.
“Rather, property tax firms
get involved after the first
pass assessment and repre-
sent clients.”
Brown also disputed the
appeals analysis, saying the
firm’s records show its ap-
peals resulted in roughly $1
billion in reductions. How-
ever, he declined to provide
any supporting information
to counter the analysis of
the assessor’s data.
Klafter & Burke — led by
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appeals on more than $4.7
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firm won reductions of
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Other firms have strong
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Christopher Crowley,
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Before joining Berrios,
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owned a stake in Madison
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and Norcross regularly
hired to do appraisals for its
assessment appeals. (Unlike
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Ghian Foreman, executive director of Greater Southwest
Development Corp.: “This system gives us a handicap.”
How we analyzed
assessments, appeals
To examine the fairness and accuracy of
commercial and industrial property assessments
under Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, as
well as the appeals process, the Chicago Tribune
and ProPublica Illinois conducted three analyses.
For details, visit chicagotribune.com/
methodology.
■ The assessor’s initial valuations — known as
first-pass values — were examined to determine
how many remained unchanged over multiple
reassessment periods. The analysis covered the
triennial reassessments for the city of Chicago
from 2003 through 2015. It included only those
commercial and industrial parcels that had no
change in Property Index Number, or PIN, from
2003 through 2009 (under former Assessor James
Houlihan) and from 2009 through 2015 (under
current Assessor Berrios). In each case the sample
size was about 40,000 parcels, or about three-
quarters of the total number of commercial and
industrial parcels in the city.
■ Sales ratio studies, which compare the asses-
sor’s valuations with actual sales prices, were
carried out for all commercial and industrial
assessments in Cook County from 2011 through
2015. The sales used to calculate ratios were
limited to arm’s-length transactions that occurred
in the same calendar years in which a triennial
reassessment took place. Statistical tests were
included in the analysis to measure accuracy and
regressivity, or the tendency to overvalue low-
priced properties and undervalue high-priced
properties.
■ Appeals of commercial and industrial assess-
ments in Cook County were analyzed to see which
law firms filed the most appeals during Berrios’
tenure, which had the largest market share in
terms of property value and which won the largest
amount of total reductions. Data from the
assessor’s office were standardized and aggre-
gated by law firm. Appeals dating to 2003 also
were analyzed to allow comparisons between the
tenures of Berrios and Houlihan.
THE SERIES
To read previous Tax Divide stories, visit chicago
tribune.com/taxdivide
trying to keep and attract a reduction. And in each
good jobs in our communi- reassessment, after the re-
ties, this system gives us a duction was granted, the
handicap,” said Ghian Fore- number bounced right back
man, executive director of to that initial value,
the Greater Southwest De- $13,455,132.
velopment Corp. and an The next chance Berrios’
industrial property owner. office has to value the prop-
“We need to make sure it’s erty comes in 2018.
fair to all business owners,
and the best way to do that is Jason Grotto, who currently
make sure the process is works for ProPublica Illinois,
done right.” completed the first three in-
Among clients Crane and stallments of “The Tax Di-
Norcross has represented — vide” as a reporter for the
and that Madison appraised Chicago Tribune and is con-
— was the owner of the tinuing the investigation as
brick building on the North- part of a Tribune-ProPublica
west Side that the assessor’s Illinois collaboration. Sand-
office valued at $13,455,132 hya Kambhampati is a data
in 2009, 2012 and 2015. reporter with ProPublica Illi-
The owner, a New York nois, which is an independ-
investment firm, hired ent, nonprofit journalism or-
Crane and Norcross to file ganization. Chicago Tribune
an appeal with the assessor reporter Ray Long and for-
in each of those years. Each mer Tribune reporter David
time, Berrios’ office granted Kidwell contributed.

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Learn more about the Carpenters

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 Sunday, December 10, 2017

EXPLAINING OUR METHODS

Jason Grotto and Sandhya Kambhampati summarized their methodology in print
and then presented an even more detailed explanation online.

http://apps.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/cook-county-property-tax-di-
vide/methods-commercial.html

How we analyzed
assessments, appeals
To examine the fairness and accuracy of commercial and industrial property
assessments under Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, as well as the appeals
process, the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois conducted three analyses. For
details, visit chicagotribune.com/methodology.
n The assessor’s initial valuations — known as first-pass values — were exam-
ined to determine how many remained unchanged over multiple reassessment pe-
riods. The analysis covered the triennial reassessments for the city of Chicago from
2003 through 2015. It included only those commercial and industrial parcels that
had no change in Property Index Number, or PIN, from 2003 through 2009 (under
former Assessor James Houlihan) and from 2009 through 2015 (under current As-
sessor Berrios). In each case the sample size was about 40,000 parcels, or about
three-quarters of the total number of commercial and industrial parcels in the city.
n Sales ratio studies, which compare the assessor’s valuations with actual sales
prices, were carried out for all commercial and industrial assessments in Cook
County from 2011 through 2015. The sales used to calculate ratios were limited to
arm’s-length transactions that occurred in the same calendar years in which a trien-
nial reassessment took place. Statistical tests were included in the analysis to mea-
sure accuracy and regressivity, or the tendency to overvalue low-priced properties
and undervalue high-priced properties.
n Appeals of commercial and industrial assessments in Cook County were ana-
lyzed to see which law firms filed the most appeals during Berrios’ tenure, which
had the largest market share in terms of property value and which won the largest
amount of total reductions. Data from the assessor’s office were standardized and
aggregated by law firm. Appeals dating to 2003 also were analyzed to allow com-
parisons between the tenures of Berrios and Houlihan.
 Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune
Trump’s victory lap
As Democrats foresee backlash, president hails ‘historic’ win
HOW THE TAX BILL’S
OBAMACARE CHANGES
MAY AFFECT ILLINOIS
On Wednesday, President
Donald Trump said, “Oba-
macare is being repealed.”
That’s not correct, though
some worry that eliminat-
ing the requirement that
people who don’t get health
insurance pay a penalty
may weaken Obamacare,
also known as the Afford-
able Care Act. Business
FIVE MOVES TO MAKE
BEFORE THE NEW TAX
RULES TAKE EFFECT
Most of the revisions to the
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coming days to maximize
new advantages and min-
imize the potential hit from
other changes. Business
ANALYSIS : TRUMP’S
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Despite a Congress con-
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Trump has yet to sign one
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promises into law this year.
Now, he can end the year
on a high note, though one
that may come with politi-
cal costs.
Nation & World, Page 13
Boy hit by bullet in
2016 is shot again
Wounds himself
with gun found in
home; dad charged
By William Lee,
Gregory Pratt and
Mohammed Kloub
Chicago Tribune
An hour before surgery
on his hand Wednesday
afternoon, 5-year-old Kavan
Collins climbed on tables
and slid around in cotton
socks on the hospital room’s
tile floor.
Aside from the wrap-
pings on his right hand,
which protect the wound
where he accidentally shot
himself Tuesday evening,
the boy looked healthy. He
played with a remote con-
trol car alongside his 3-year-
old brother and shook his
TERRENCE ANTONIO JAMES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Kavan Collins, 5, recuperates in the hospital Wednesday as
his mother, Dantignay Brashear, looks over him.
Illinois no longer 5th-largest state
The state is now 6th after Pennsylvania, according to
census data. Illinois lost about 33,700 residents, the
greatest numeric loss of any state. Chicagoland, Page 4
Tom Skilling’s forecast
President Donald Trump congratulates Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the White House on Wednesday.
head “no” when asked if his
hand still hurt.
After a skin graft, Kavan’s
family expects to have him
home for Christmas — good
news for a family that
knows firsthand the shoot-
ing could’ve been worse.
In June 2016, Kavan was
walking with his mother
when a stray bullet broke
his jaw, an incident his
family said changed the
boy’s personality and made
him believe he needed a gun
for protection.
“Ever since his first trag-
edy, he (hasn’t) been the
same,” said Kavan’s mother,
Dantignay Brashear. “He’s
growing up to think that’s
what he needs for protec-
tion. And he’ll say that out of
his own mouth.”
Turn to Kavan, Page 6
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Thursday, December 21, 2017
SPECIAL REPORT
Assessor is slow to adopt
anti-patronage reforms
Monitoring reports
show Shakman
agreement ‘not a
priority’ for Berrios
By Ray Long
Chicago Tribune
and Jason Grotto
ProPublica Illinois
Cook County Assessor Joseph
Berrios has never made any secret
of his affinity for old-school poli-
tics that put a premium on loyalty
and favors.
That approach has served him
well in the Cook County Demo-
cratic Party, where he’s risen to
chairman, and at the ballot box,
where he’s won two terms as
assessor and next year will seek a
third.
But it also has caused problems
for him with federal court moni-
tors, who are not so fond of the old
ways. For years they have been
prodding Berrios to comply with
standards from the landmark
Shakman decree aimed at ending
political patronage in local gov-
ernment.
The monitors’ reports, re-
viewed by the Chicago Tribune
and ProPublica Illinois, reveal a
persistent pattern in Berrios’ of-
fice of improper hiring and firing,
arbitrary staffing decisions and
Chicago Weather Center: Complete
forecast on back page of A+E section
Breaking news at chicagotribune.com
By Steve Peoples,
Catherine Lucey
and Marcy Gordon
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A tri-
umphant President Donald
Trump and jubilant fellow
Republicans celebrated the
passage of their $1.5 trillion
tax overhaul Wednesday as
a “historic victory for the
American people.”
As Trump and GOP law-
makers gathered at the
White House to cheer their
first major legislative
achievement — and the big-
gest tax changes in a gener-
ation — some Republicans
warned that the party could
face a painful political back-
lash against an overhaul
that offers corporations and
wealthy taxpayers the big-
gest benefits and triggers
the loss of health care cov-
erage for millions of Ameri-
cans.
The president and con-
gressional Republicans
pushed any qualms aside
and reveled in a much-
needed win at the end of a
year marked by GOP in-
fighting and political stum-
bles.
“We are making America
MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP
Turn to Taxes, Page 13
JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios defends his hiring of his relatives.
resistance to change. The pace of ance comes as the basic compe-
reform has been slow and the tence of his assessment operation
assessor’s commitment often tep- has been challenged. The inves-
id, records and interviews show. tigative series “The Tax Divide,”
Even after five years of court which launched in the Tribune in
hearings and monitoring, the of- June, found deep flaws in proper-
fice has yet to emerge from federal ty assessments under Berrios dur-
oversight — and county taxpayers ing many of the same years the
are paying a price. The county office ran afoul of the Shakman
covers bills for both the Shakman agreement.
attorneys and the court monitor, The series, based on an analysis
ongoing costs that now total more of millions of property tax records,
than $3 million, according to bills found that residential assessments
approved by a federal judge and in Cook County were inaccurate
county records. and unfair during Berrios’ tenure,
The examination of Berrios’
struggle with Shakman compli- Turn to Berrios, Page 9
The tale behind a Christmas classic
Why “This Christmas” — written by a Chicagoan, per-
formed by Chicagoans and recorded in Chicago — is the
best song of the season. Christopher Borrelli in A+E
$1.99 city and suburbs, $2.50 elsewhere
170th year No. 355 © Chicago Tribune

Reports: Berrios patronage persists
Berrios, from Page 1
punishing poorer residents and
handing breaks to wealthier ones.
A December installment, co-
published with ProPublica Illi-
nois, exposed inequities and inac-
curacies in Berrios’ commercial
and industrial assessments during
the years 2011 through 2015, with
downtown skyscrapers landing
massive breaks while small busi-
nesses got hit with unfair property
tax bills.
The person now in charge of
those valuations is Berrios’ daugh-
ter Vanessa, who was promoted
into the job in 2016 — a move that
the federal monitor said “fla-
grantly violated” employment
guidelines.
Cynthia Canary, a good-govern-
ment consultant, sees a connec-
tion between the way the asses-
sor’s office operates under Berrios
and the questions swirling around
one of his most fundamental tasks:
issuing accurate property assess-
ments.
“If you’ve got an office that
practices patronage and disre-
gards rules, I don’t think we
should be surprised that the out-
comes we get, in terms of assess-
ments, are shoddy,” said Canary,
who formerly ran the Illinois
Campaign for Political Reform
and headed an ethics task force for
Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“It’s like garbage in, garbage
out.”
One monitor report, filed in late
2014, found that a department in
the assessor’s office that gathers
data to calculate property values
was “impacted by political patron-
age.” That report also found that
some workers who handle techni-
cal reviews — a final step in
assessments where information
can be corrected or added — felt
underused, saying they were get-
ting cut out of decisions they had
made before Berrios took office.
“The staff does not feel utilized
despite having the working
knowledge and skills to get the job
done,” the monitor wrote.
Hired by Berrios to serve as his
director of compliance, Deborah
Ellis pushed hard for new policies
at the assessor’s office. But in 2014,
about 15 months into her job,
Berrios fired her.
“Nobody likes change,” Ellis
said in a text message, in response
to questions for this story. “Espe-
cially if it is perceived as a
limitation of power. Or a disrup-
tion.”
In an interview, Berrios de-
clined to discuss Ellis’ dismissal
and said he’s making progress in
bringing his office up to speed
with what Shakman and the
federal court monitors demand,
despite a shrinking payroll. “Be-
lieve me, I want them out of here,”
he said of the monitors.
Berrios also defended his prac-
tice of carrying relatives on his
public payroll and the hiring of
political allies from the Cook
County Board of Review, where
he had served as tax appeals
commissioner for two decades.
He said the hires — who included
his son and a sister — arrived with
deep and valuable experience
from years of working in the
property tax system.
“They all work hard,” Berrios
said, adding: “They will do what-
ever they have to do to make sure
the assessments come through
fair for everyone.”
Berrios, who manages more
than 260 employees and a $24.8
million annual budget, scoffed at
suggestions that personnel moves
hurt his office’s ability to deter-
mine property values. “No, that’s
totally untrue,” he said. “We’re
doing our job.”
This year Berrios hired a for-
mer assistant state’s attorney to
help meet the anti-patronage
standards.
Berrios also noted that he has
finished assessments on time six
years in a row, helping local
governments save “millions and
millions” on borrowing costs.
Yet a Tribune-ProPublica Illi-
nois analysis of tens of thousands
of commercial and industrial
parcels found numerous values
that remained identical from one
reassessment period to the next,
three years later. Experts said that
would be virtually impossible had
the assessor’s office actually done
the work of valuing the property.
Michael Shakman, the attorney
who brought the original case
against local governments over
unfair hiring and personnel prac-
tices, said the assessor’s office has
moved too slowly and is far from
reformed.
Political favoritism and incon-
sistency in hiring, promotions and
other employment decisions can
create a “negative impact, both on
the morale of the people in the
office who are trying to do the
work the right way and on the
quality of the work that gets done,”
Shakman said in an interview.
The ‘Berrios people’
Not much time ticked off the
clock between Berrios taking the
oath of office for his first term and
the assessor’s new team calling
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios’ office is under court oversight for its hiring and firing practices.
veteran workers into private
meetings to let them go.
“They just had an assembly line,
going in one after another,” said
Robert Johnson, a longtime em-
ployee who said the group was
notified within hours of Berrios
taking charge on Dec. 6, 2010.
“They introduced themselves,
‘Nice to meet you.’ They said they
wanted to go in a different direc-
tion. They told you to turn in your
keys, your IDs, all that stuff.”
The sweep ultimately caused
county taxpayers to pay $529,000
in compensation to 11 workers
fired in acts of “unlawful political
discrimination.” The federal court
monitor later described the moves
as evidence that the assessor
wanted to “make room” for the
people he wanted to hire.
Johnson, who received $95,000
in compensation, said in an inter-
view that he outlined for the
monitor his three decades of work
in the assessor’s office and his role
managing how property parcels
got shaped. Johnson also took
issue with the person who would
later get his job: Michael La-
Calamita, whose mother, Victoria,
became Berrios’ human resources
chief. “They were big buddies and
all this,” Johnson said.
The assessor acknowledges
that Victoria LaCalamita is a close
friend he’s known since 1980. But
Berrios brushed aside Johnson’s
objections, saying, “Everyone has
a chance to make their own
interpretation.”
Both LaCalamitas came with
Berrios from the Board of Review,
Berrios said. Michael LaCalamita
no longer works at the assessor’s
office; his mother now holds a top
financial position.
The monitor’s decision to com-
pensate the workers still irks
Berrios, who says he believed he
acted properly when he fired
them.
Patronage has been an issue in
the assessor’s office for decades,
and prior assessors have operated
under various Shakman orders
since 1972. But Berrios’ early
actions as assessor prompted
Shakman to push for an additional
step: installing a federal monitor
who would track the assessor’s
progress in achieving various anti-
patronage benchmarks.
Federal monitors helped both
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
and Cook County Sheriff Tom
Dart resolve Shakman cases.
Emanuel inherited a federal mon-
itor in the mayor’s office, and Dart
embraced the idea of installing a
monitor when he became sheriff.
After lengthy discussions, Shak-
man and Berrios reached a federal
court agreement in September
2012 that set a path forward. The
assessor agreed to create more
transparent procedures with the
goal of rooting out patronage in
hiring and staffing decisions as
well as hiring an internal compli-
ance director.
The compliance director, an
employee of the assessor’s office,
was supposed to ensure that it
adheres to all employment poli-
cies and procedures, including
Shakman prohibitions against po-
litical hiring. Meanwhile, the fed-
eral court monitor would review
the claims of workers fired un-
fairly, detail developments and
help push for progress until the
office was found to be in compli-
ance.
It didn’t take long before the
new monitor, retired Cook County
Judge Clifford Meacham, deliv-
ered a sobering analysis. In a
report filed in January 2013,
Meacham said the assessor’s of-
fice had a “widespread disregard
for written policies and pro-
cedures,” from skirting competi-
tive hiring rules to skipping per-
formance evaluations.
Meacham emphasized that
even smaller favors should stop.
E. JASON WAMBSGANS/CHICAGO TRIBUNE 2015
He highlighted how a special
group of 19 transplants from the
review board known in the asses-
sor’s office as the “Berrios people”
got to come and go at work
without having to swipe their
office cards and didn’t have to give
advance notice for vacations.
Giving breaks to one “politically
connected” group over others
frustrates the purpose of the
Shakman agreement, Meacham
wrote.
That agreement does not di-
rectly address nepotism, but
Berrios’ decision to put his sister,
Carmen, and his son, Joseph, on
the payroll drew the attention of
the County Board of Ethics, which
sought to fine Berrios $10,000 in
2012.
A judge ruled in 2015 that the
assessor had to comply with the
county’s ethics ordinance and the
board of ethics had the authority
to investigate the assessor. But the
ruling also said the ordinance did
not authorize the board to impose
fines. County taxpayers wound up
paying a total of about $300,000 to
cover both sides of the legal battle,
records show, and county com-
missioners passed a new ordi-
nance giving the board the power
to levy fines in the future.
Berrios’ son no longer works at
the assessor’s office. His sister
now is deputy assessor over tax-
payer services and public out-
reach.
As Berrios headed into his
second term in late 2014 — after
running unopposed in the pri-
mary and general elections —
Meacham issued a report that
made it clear the assessor still had
many issues to overcome. High-
level aides in the assessor’s office,
Meacham wrote, had character-
ized Shakman standards as “not a
priority” and “being without val-
ue.” Overall, he wrote, “The gen-
eral impression of the employees
in the office was that employment
actions were based on nepotism,
favoritism, or politics.”
‘Not a priority’
Deborah Ellis, chosen from 53
applicants to serve as compliance
director in Berrios’ office, started
her job in the summer of 2013.
Meacham praised her as a “well-
qualified individual with strong
investigative skills, law enforce-
ment experience, experience in
government, and a firm commit-
ment to service.”
But Meacham also described
Ellis as “frustrated” with arbitrary
personnel actions and “ham-
pered” by the assessor’s office in
trying to investigate potential ir-
regularities in hiring, promotions
and discipline.
“She advocated for written
policies and procedures and a
transparent and fair process for all
employees, to no avail,” he wrote.
In a report to Meacham and
Berrios, two months before his
re-election, Ellis complained of a
lack of communication with
Berrios and his top staff, calling
the matter a “critical area which
needs vast improvement.”
The assessor had not “involved
himself in any conversation re-
garding compliance efforts” with
her, Ellis wrote in the September
2014 report, and his chief of staff is
“very rarely involved.”
The next month, in October,
Berrios fired Ellis. A new internal
compliance director did not come
aboard until February 2016 —
more than a year later.
The assessor’s office blames
that delay on the monitor. In a
December 2014 report, Meacham
had recommended that Ellis’ posi-
tion remain vacant until “such
time as the assessor’s office dem-
onstrates a willingness to effect
actual and meaningful reforms.”
In the same report, Meacham
demanded that the assessor’s of-
Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Thursday, December 21, 2017
fice hire “a professional” as head
of human resources. Establishing
professional human resources de-
partments had been a “key driver”
for Emanuel and Dart in meeting
Shakman standards, Meacham
noted.
But under Berrios, Meacham
wrote: “There were no written
policies and procedures for the
employees to reference or for the
office to follow. The contents of
the personnel files were not stand-
ardized. There was no discernible
disciplinary policy, overtime pol-
icy, promotion policy or hiring
protocol that had been consis-
tently utilized.
“There were no performance
evaluations,” he added. “Position
descriptions and organization
charts were incomplete and inac-
curate.”
Meacham also criticized an
“opaque process” in employment
decisions that appeared to include
only Victoria LaCalamita and the
assessor.
Berrios disputed that point in
an interview. “That’s not the case,”
he said. “Not at all.”
Records show Meacham
viewed it as “impossible” for the
assessor’s office to comply with
Shakman standards as long as
LaCalamita ran the human re-
sources operation.
Ellis raised similar issues as
Berrios’ director of compliance. In
a September 2014 review of the
assessor’s office, she wrote that
LaCalamita was “inconsistent and
unpredictable” in responding to
inquiries and often challenged
Ellis’ authority.
Berrios moved LaCalamita
from human resources the follow-
ing month — around the same
time he fired Ellis.
By May 2015 — six months into
Berrios’ second term and well into
his third year under a federal
monitor — Meacham reported
that numerous ongoing delays, a
lack of written policies and resist-
ance to issues the monitor raised
“all suggest that Shakman is not a
priority in the assessor’s office.”
“As always, actions are telling,”
Meacham wrote.
In a coda to that May report, he
said the “lack of meaningful prog-
ress that has characterized this
endeavor will continue to the
detriment of those employed by
the assessor, those who seek to be
employed by the assessor and,
most significantly, the taxpayers of
Cook County.”
In his last report, filed in August
2015, Meacham described the
assessor’s progress toward com-
pliance as slow but steady. “Much
remains to be done,” he wrote.
Attorney Susan Feibus took
over monitoring duties in Febru-
ary 2016 after Meacham volun-
tarily resigned.
Later that year, in her first
report, Feibus determined Berrios
had “paid lip service” to achieving
Shakman standards and his “con-
duct has belied a genuine commit-
ment to the process.”
She also trained her attention
on Berrios’ promotion of his
daughter Vanessa to the high-level
job of director of industrial and
commercial valuations in April
2016 — a move that came with a
significant boost in salary.
Vanessa Berrios’ annual pay
was $80,373 in 2015 while she
worked as a manager of industrial
and commercial valuations, but
her salary in 2016 as director was
$107,099, the monitor wrote.
The promotion “flagrantly vio-
lated” employment guidelines the
assessor should have followed
even though it was a management
post with leeway in hiring, Feibus
wrote in August 2016. For one
thing, she noted, the younger
Berrios didn’t have the minimum
five years of management experi-
ence outlined in a job description
updated only months earlier.
9
THE SHAKMAN DECREE
The far-reaching anti-patron-
age court orders known as the
Shakman decree date to 1972 and
came about after attorney
Michael Shakman filed suits
against local governments over
widespread patronage abuse. The
orders prohibit basing public
employment actions such as
hiring, firing and promotions on
political factors, with exceptions
for policy-making jobs. If a judge
finds a government to be in com-
pliance with the order, then fed-
eral court oversight is ended.
Ignoring the updated job de-
scription, the assessor’s office
deemed Berrios’ daughter to be
eligible under an older job de-
scription that, Feibus said, officials
“erroneously” interpreted as re-
quiring no managerial experience.
Feibus said requiring no manage-
rial experience for such a high-
ranking job was “ludicrous,” but
her objections “went unheeded.”
Berrios said in an interview that
Vanessa Berrios was just short of
five years as a manager at the time
of her promotion and that she
built up that experience in the
same department where she was
promoted.
“She’s doing a fabulous job for
us,” he said.
Progress report
Overall movement in the asses-
sor’s case is tracked every couple
of months in Judge Sidney
Schenkier’s federal courtroom,
where the sounds of street traffic
and sirens filter up from 18 floors
below.
In a post-Thanksgiving status
hearing last month, Berrios and
his team, Feibus and an aide, and
Shakman attorney Brian Hays
marked a minor milestone when
the assessor’s office confirmed
that job applications had gone
online earlier in November. A
monitor report from August 2015
had said that the office’s paper
application process “encourages
confusion and distrust” in hiring.
For a time, Berrios attempted to
set up his own electronic applica-
tion process, but amid mounting
pressure from Schenkier, Feibus
and Hays, he worked out a way to
join the online system used by
other county offices.
As it happens, however, Berrios
is starting to use the online system
just as countywide budget cuts are
forcing him to lay off workers,
diminishing the immediate need
for electronic applications.
“The Catch-22 we’re in is, we’re
not going to be using it anytime
soon because we’re not going to be
hiring,” said Tom Nowinski, a
former assistant state’s attorney
with Shakman experience whom
Berrios hired this year to work
solely on helping to bring the
assessor’s office into compliance.
The parties also are moving
forward on employee evaluations,
updated job descriptions and
other policies and procedures,
records show. Berrios has in-
creased the number of people in
human resources, although he’s
still under pressure to improve the
department, and he’s put in place
an employment plan that gives a
better road map for the office.
“We’ve made significant prog-
ress,” Berrios said.
Berrios spokesman Tom Shaer
said “there is no material non-
compliance” in the assessor’s of-
fice. But Feibus, who wrote in
September of the office’s “excel-
lent progress” in writing policies,
pointedly noted that “drafting
policies is only the first step.
Implementation is equally, if not
more, important.”
Hays added that only in the last
six months did the assessor’s
office “finally begin drafting poli-
cies and procedures required
under the September 2012 agreed
order. The assessor’s office has
also begun updating job descrip-
tions that had not been updated
since 2006 or earlier.”
Berrios said the delay in bring-
ing his office into compliance can
be blamed on the changeover in
monitors — as well as their use of
five different assistants along the
way. The turnover, he said, slowed
progress and drove up costs in
ways he can’t control.
“I can only move as fast as they
allow me to move,” Berrios said.
Shakman disagreed: “They’re
trying to blame somebody else for
their delay.”
Ellis, who now works as an
attorney for the federal govern-
ment, said recent reports from the
court monitor describe the same
lack of commitment she saw in the
assessor and his team during her
time as director of compliance.
“It doesn’t look like that has
changed,” she said.
This report is a collaboration be-
tween the Tribune and ProPublica
Illinois, an independent, nonprofit
journalism organization. The Trib-
une’s Hal Dardick contributed.
rlong@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @RayLong
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The monitors’ reports, reviewed by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois,
reveal a persistent pattern in Berrios’ office of improper hiring and firing, arbitrary
staffing decisions and resistance to change. The pace of reform has been slow and
the assessor’s commitment often tepid, records and interviews show.

rkshop, IRC The tale behind a Christmas classic

ddle Eastern refugee Why “This Christmas” — written by a Chicagoan, per-
 Even after five years of court hearings and monitoring, the office has yet to emerge
from federal oversight — and county taxpayers are paying a price. The county cov-
ers bills for both the Shakman attorneys and the court monitor, ongoing costs that
now total more than $3 million, according to bills approved by a federal judge and
county records.
The examination of Berrios’ struggle with Shakman compliance comes as the
basic competence of his assessment operation has been challenged. The investiga-
tive series “The Tax Divide,” which launched in the Tribune in June, found deep
flaws in property assessments under Berrios during many of the same years the of-
fice ran afoul of the Shakman agreement.
The series, based on an analysis of millions of property tax records, found that
residential assessments in Cook County were inaccurate and unfair during Berrios’
tenure, punishing poorer residents and handing breaks to wealthier ones.
A December installment, co-published with ProPublica Illinois, exposed inequi-
ties and inaccuracies in Berrios’ commercial and industrial assessments during the
years 2011 through 2015, with downtown skyscrapers landing massive breaks while
small businesses got hit with unfair property tax bills.
The person now in charge of those valuations is Berrios’ daughter Vanessa, who
was promoted into the job in 2016 — a move that the federal monitor said “flagrantly
violated” employment guidelines.
Cynthia Canary, a good-government consultant, sees a connection between the
way the assessor’s office operates under Berrios and the questions swirling around
one of his most fundamental tasks: issuing accurate property assessments.
“If you’ve got an office that practices patronage and disregards rules, I don’t
think we should be surprised that the outcomes we get, in terms of assessments, are
shoddy,” said Canary, who formerly ran the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
and headed an ethics task force for Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“It’s like garbage in, garbage out.”
One monitor report, filed in late 2014, found that a department in the assessor’s
office that gathers data to calculate property values was “impacted by political pa-
tronage.” That report also found that some workers who handle technical reviews
— a final step in assessments where information can be corrected or added — felt
underused, saying they were getting cut out of decisions they had made before Ber-
rios took office.
“The staff does not feel utilized despite having the working knowledge and skills
to get the job done,” the monitor wrote.
Hired by Berrios to serve as his director of compliance, Deborah Ellis pushed
hard for new policies at the assessor’s office. But in 2014, about 15 months into her
job, Berrios fired her.
“Nobody likes change,” Ellis said in a text message, in response to questions for
this story. “Especially if it is perceived as a limitation of power. Or a disruption.”
In an interview, Berrios declined to discuss Ellis’ dismissal and said he’s mak-
ing progress in bringing his office up to speed with what Shakman and the federal
court monitors demand, despite a shrinking payroll. “Believe me, I want them out
of here,” he said of the monitors.
Berrios also defended his practice of carrying relatives on his public payroll and
the hiring of political allies from the Cook County Board of Review, where he had
served as tax appeals commissioner for two decades. He said the hires — who in-
cluded his son and a sister — arrived with deep and valuable experience from years
of working in the property tax system.
“They all work hard,” Berrios said, adding: “They will do whatever they have to
do to make sure the assessments come through fair for everyone.”
 Berrios, who manages more than 260 employees and a $24.8 million annual bud-
get, scoffed at suggestions that personnel moves hurt his office’s ability to determine
property values. “No, that’s totally untrue,” he said. “We’re doing our job.”
This year Berrios hired a former assistant state’s attorney to help meet the anti-
patronage standards.
Berrios also noted that he has finished assessments on time six years in a row,
helping local governments save “millions and millions” on borrowing costs.
Yet a Tribune-ProPublica Illinois analysis of tens of thousands of commercial
and industrial parcels found numerous values that remained identical from one re-
assessment period to the next, three years later. Experts said that would be virtually
impossible had the assessor’s office actually done the work of valuing the property.
Michael Shakman, the attorney who brought the original case against local gov-
ernments over unfair hiring and personnel practices, said the assessor’s office has
moved too slowly and is far from reformed.
Political favoritism and inconsistency in hiring, promotions and other employ-
ment decisions can create a “negative impact, both on the morale of the people in
the office who are trying to do the work the right way and on the quality of the work
that gets done,” Shakman said in an interview.

The ‘Berrios people’

Not much time ticked off the clock between Berrios taking the oath of office for
his first term and the assessor’s new team calling veteran workers into private meet-
ings to let them go.
“They just had an assembly line, going in one after another,” said Robert Johnson,
a longtime employee who said the group was notified within hours of Berrios taking
charge on Dec. 6, 2010. “They introduced themselves, ‘Nice to meet you.’ They said
they wanted to go in a different direction. They told you to turn in your keys, your
IDs, all that stuff.”
The sweep ultimately caused county taxpayers to pay $529,000 in compensation
to 11 workers fired in acts of “unlawful political discrimination.” The federal court
monitor later described the moves as evidence that the assessor wanted to “make
room” for the people he wanted to hire.
Johnson, who received $95,000 in compensation, said in an interview that he
outlined for the monitor his three decades of work in the assessor’s office and his
role managing how property parcels got shaped. Johnson also took issue with the
person who would later get his job: Michael LaCalamita, whose mother, Victoria,
became Berrios’ human resources chief. “They were big buddies and all this,” John-
son said.
The assessor acknowledges that Victoria LaCalamita is a close friend he’s known
since 1980. But Berrios brushed aside Johnson’s objections, saying, “Everyone has a
chance to make their own interpretation.”
Both LaCalamitas came with Berrios from the Board of Review, Berrios said. Mi-
chael LaCalamita no longer works at the assessor’s office; his mother now holds a
top financial position.
The monitor’s decision to compensate the workers still irks Berrios, who says he
believed he acted properly when he fired them.
Patronage has been an issue in the assessor’s office for decades, and prior as-
sessors have operated under various Shakman orders since 1972. But Berrios’ early
actions as assessor prompted Shakman to push for an additional step: installing a
federal monitor who would track the assessor’s progress in achieving various anti-
patronage benchmarks.
Federal monitors helped both Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County
 E. JASON WAMBSGANS/CHICAGO TRIBUNE 2015
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios’ office is under court oversight for its hiring and firing practices.

Sheriff Tom Dart resolve Shakman cases. Emanuel inherited a federal monitor in
the mayor’s office, and Dart embraced the idea of installing a monitor when he be-
came sheriff.
After lengthy discussions, Shakman and Berrios reached a federal court agree-
ment in September 2012 that set a path forward. The assessor agreed to create more
transparent procedures with the goal of rooting out patronage in hiring and staffing
decisions as well as hiring an internal compliance director.
The compliance director, an employee of the assessor’s office, was supposed to
ensure that it adheres to all employment policies and procedures, including Shak-
man prohibitions against political hiring. Meanwhile, the federal court monitor
would review the claims of workers fired unfairly, detail developments and help
push for progress until the office was found to be in compliance.
It didn’t take long before the new monitor, retired Cook County Judge Clifford
Meacham, delivered a sobering analysis. In a report filed in January 2013, Meacham
said the assessor’s office had a “widespread disregard for written policies and pro-
cedures,” from skirting competitive hiring rules to skipping performance evalua-
tions.
Meacham emphasized that even smaller favors should stop. He highlighted how
a special group of 19 transplants from the review board known in the assessor’s of-
fice as the “Berrios people” got to come and go at work without having to swipe
their office cards and didn’t have to give advance notice for vacations.
Giving breaks to one “politically connected” group over others frustrates the
purpose of the Shakman agreement, Meacham wrote.
That agreement does not directly address nepotism, but Berrios’ decision to put
his sister, Carmen, and his son, Joseph, on the payroll drew the attention of the
County Board of Ethics, which sought to fine Berrios $10,000 in 2012.
A judge ruled in 2015 that the assessor had to comply with the county’s ethics or-
dinance and the board of ethics had the authority to investigate the assessor. But the
ruling also said the ordinance did not authorize the board to impose fines. County
taxpayers wound up paying a total of about $300,000 to cover both sides of the legal
battle, records show, and county commissioners passed a new ordinance giving the
board the power to levy fines in the future.
Berrios’ son no longer works at the assessor’s office. His sister now is deputy as-
sessor over taxpayer services and public outreach.
As Berrios headed into his second term in late 2014 — after running unopposed
in the primary and general elections — Meacham issued a report that made it clear
the assessor still had many issues to overcome. High-level aides in the assessor’s of-
fice, Meacham wrote, had characterized Shakman standards as “not a priority” and
“being without value.” Overall, he wrote, “The general impression of the employees
in the office was that employment actions were based on nepotism, favoritism, or
politics.”

‘Not a priority’
Deborah Ellis, chosen from 53 applicants to serve as compliance director in Ber-
rios’ office, started her job in the summer of 2013. Meacham praised her as a “well-
qualified individual with strong investigative skills, law enforcement experience,
experience in government, and a firm commitment to service.”
But Meacham also described Ellis as “frustrated” with arbitrary personnel ac-
tions and “hampered” by the assessor’s office in trying to investigate potential ir-
regularities in hiring, promotions and discipline.
“She advocated for written policies and procedures and a transparent and fair
process for all employees, to no avail,” he wrote.
In a report to Meacham and Berrios, two months before his re-election, Ellis
complained of a lack of communication with Berrios and his top staff, calling the
matter a “critical area which needs vast improvement.”
The assessor had not “involved himself in any conversation regarding compli-
ance efforts” with her, Ellis wrote in the September 2014 report, and his chief of
staff is “very rarely involved.”
The next month, in October, Berrios fired Ellis. A new internal compliance direc-
tor did not come aboard until February 2016 — more than a year later.
The assessor’s office blames that delay on the monitor. In a December 2014 re-
port, Meacham had recommended that Ellis’ position remain vacant until “such
time as the assessor’s office demonstrates a willingness to effect actual and mean-
ingful reforms.”
In the same report, Meacham demanded that the assessor’s office hire “a pro-
fessional” as head of human resources. Establishing professional human resources
departments had been a “key driver” for Emanuel and Dart in meeting Shakman
standards, Meacham noted.
But under Berrios, Meacham wrote: “There were no written policies and proce-
dures for the employees to reference or for the office to follow. The contents of the
personnel files were not standardized. There was no discernible disciplinary policy,
overtime policy, promotion policy or hiring protocol that had been consistently uti-
lized.
“There were no performance evaluations,” he added. “Position descriptions and
organization charts were incomplete and inaccurate.”
Meacham also criticized an “opaque process” in employment decisions that ap-
peared to include only Victoria LaCalamita and the assessor.
Berrios disputed that point in an interview. “That’s not the case,” he said. “Not at
all.”
Records show Meacham viewed it as “impossible” for the assessor’s office to
comply with Shakman standards as long as LaCalamita ran the human resources
operation.
 Ellis raised similar issues as Berrios’ director of compliance. In a September 2014
review of the assessor’s office, she wrote that LaCalamita was “inconsistent and un-
predictable” in responding to inquiries and often challenged Ellis’ authority.
Berrios moved LaCalamita from human resources the following month — around
the same time he fired Ellis.
By May 2015 — six months into Berrios’ second term and well into his third year
under a federal monitor — Meacham reported that numerous ongoing delays, a lack
of written policies and resistance to issues the monitor raised “all suggest that Shak-
man is not a priority in the assessor’s office.”
“As always, actions are telling,”
Meacham wrote.
In a coda to that May report, he
said the “lack of meaningful prog- THE SHAKMAN DECREE
ress that has characterized this The far-reaching anti-patronage court
endeavor will continue to the det- orders known as the Shakman decree
riment of those employed by the date to 1972 and came about after at-
assessor, those who seek to be em- torney Michael Shakman filed suits
ployed by the assessor and, most against local governments over wide-
significantly, the taxpayers of Cook spread patronage abuse. The orders
County.” prohibit basing public employment ac-
In his last report, filed in August tions such as hiring, firing and promo-
2015, Meacham described the as- tions on political factors, with excep-
sessor’s progress toward compli- tions for policy-making jobs. If a judge
ance as slow but steady. “Much re- finds a government to be in compliance
mains to be done,” he wrote. with the order, then federal court over-
Attorney Susan Feibus took sight is ended.
over monitoring duties in Febru-
ary 2016 after Meacham voluntari-
ly resigned.
Later that year, in her first report, Feibus determined Berrios had “paid lip ser-
vice” to achieving Shakman standards and his “conduct has belied a genuine com-
mitment to the process.”
She also trained her attention on Berrios’ promotion of his daughter Vanessa to
the high-level job of director of industrial and commercial valuations in April 2016
— a move that came with a significant boost in salary.
Vanessa Berrios’ annual pay was $80,373 in 2015 while she worked as a man-
ager of industrial and commercial valuations, but her salary in 2016 as director was
$107,099, the monitor wrote.
The promotion “flagrantly violated” employment guidelines the assessor should
have followed even though it was a management post with leeway in hiring, Feibus
wrote in August 2016. For one thing, she noted, the younger Berrios didn’t have the
minimum five years of management experience outlined in a job description up-
dated only months earlier.
Ignoring the updated job description, the assessor’s office deemed Berrios’
daughter to be eligible under an older job description that, Feibus said, officials “er-
roneously” interpreted as requiring no managerial experience. Feibus said requir-
ing no managerial experience for such a high-ranking job was “ludicrous,” but her
objections “went unheeded.”
Berrios said in an interview that Vanessa Berrios was just short of five years as a
manager at the time of her promotion and that she built up that experience in the
same department where she was promoted.
“She’s doing a fabulous job for us,” he said.
Progress report
Overall movement in the assessor’s case is tracked every couple of months in
Judge Sidney Schenkier’s federal courtroom, where the sounds of street traffic and
sirens filter up from 18 floors below.
In a post-Thanksgiving status hearing last month, Berrios and his team, Feibus
and an aide, and Shakman attorney Brian Hays marked a minor milestone when the
assessor’s office confirmed that job applications had gone online earlier in Novem-
ber. A monitor report from August 2015 had said that the office’s paper application
process “encourages confusion and distrust” in hiring.
For a time, Berrios attempted to set up his own electronic application process,
but amid mounting pressure from Schenkier, Feibus and Hays, he worked out a way
to join the online system used by other county offices.
As it happens, however, Berrios is starting to use the online system just as county-
wide budget cuts are forcing him to lay off workers, diminishing the immediate need
for electronic applications.
“The Catch-22 we’re in is, we’re not going to be using it anytime soon because
we’re not going to be hiring,” said Tom Nowinski, a former assistant state’s attorney
with Shakman experience whom Berrios hired this year to work solely on helping
to bring the assessor’s office into compliance.
The parties also are moving forward on employee evaluations, updated job de-
scriptions and other policies and procedures, records show. Berrios has increased
the number of people in human resources, although he’s still under pressure to im-
prove the department, and he’s put in place an employment plan that gives a better
road map for the office.
“We’ve made significant progress,” Berrios said.
Berrios spokesman Tom Shaer said “there is no material non-compliance” in the
assessor’s office. But Feibus, who wrote in September of the office’s “excellent prog-
ress” in writing policies, pointedly noted that “drafting policies is only the first step.
Implementation is equally, if not more, important.”
Hays added that only in the last six months did the assessor’s office “finally begin
drafting policies and procedures required under the September 2012 agreed order.
The assessor’s office has also begun updating job descriptions that had not been
updated since 2006 or earlier.”
Berrios said the delay in bringing his office into compliance can be blamed on
the changeover in monitors — as well as their use of five different assistants along
the way. The turnover, he said, slowed progress and drove up costs in ways he can’t
control.
“I can only move as fast as they allow me to move,” Berrios said.
Shakman disagreed: “They’re trying to blame somebody else for their delay.”
Ellis, who now works as an attorney for the federal government, said recent re-
ports from the court monitor describe the same lack of commitment she saw in the
assessor and his team during her time as director of compliance.
“It doesn’t look like that has changed,” she said.

Tribune’s Hal Dardick contributed.

This report is a collaboration between the Tribune and ProPublica Illinois, an inde-
pendent, nonprofit journalism organization.
 Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune Friday, December 15, 2017 Breaking news at chicagotribune.com

DANGEROUS DOSES

Lawsuit alleges bias in assessments

E. JASON WAMBSGANS/TRIBUNE
Allison Zayas sold the anti-
psychotic Seroquel for drug
firm AstraZeneca. She later
filed a whistleblower suit.
Berrios’ system
hurts the poor,
litigation claims
By Jason Grotto
ProPublica Illinois
and Hal Dardick
Chicago Tribune
A group of public-inter-
est lawyers filed a lawsuit
Thursday alleging that em-
battled Cook County As-
rights and housing laws by
knowingly producing inac-
curate assessments that
punished poor and minor-
ity homeowners across the
county.
The lawsuit, filed in
Cook County Circuit
Court, contends the coun-
ty’s “residential property
tax scheme is neither accu-
rate nor uniform” and is
“perpetuating institutional
racism” by shifting the tax
Cook trust and confidence in the
County residential property tax
Assessor system.”
Joseph Specifically, the lawsuit
Berrios alleges that county assess-
ments overvalue low-
priced homes while under-
valuing high-priced ones.
hoods to poorer, minority Known as regressivity, that
neighborhoods. flaw leads to deep inequi-
The lawsuit also alleges ties in property taxes that
a lack of transparency in break down along racial
the office, contending the and ethnic lines, with poor,
“secrecy is antithetical to black and Hispanic home-
er and white residents pay
less.
As a result, the lawsuit
argues, the county violated
the Illinois Civil Rights Act,
equal protection clauses of
the state and federal consti-
tutions, and the federal Fair
Housing Act.
In response to the law-
suit, a spokesman for
Berrios issued a blanket
denial that anything is
amiss with the office’s as-

Drug rep sessor Joseph Berrios vio-

lated state and federal civil
burden from wealthier, ma-
jority-white neighbor-
democratic accountability
and undermines public
owners paying more than
they should while wealthi- Turn to Berrios, Page 8

says she
warned
of dangers
Mixing Seroquel,
methadone can be
fatal, lawsuit says
By Sam Roe
Chicago Tribune

Few prescription drugs

were as popular as the
antipsychotic Seroquel.
Psychiatrists trusted it,
nursing homes used it and
addiction specialists pre-
scribed it. Annual sales ex-
ceeded $3 billion.
But in the winter of 2009,
one of the top pharmaceu-
tical sales representatives
selling it, Allison Zayas, be-
gan to have her doubts.
According to Zayas, one
of her best clients, a doctor
at a New York City outpa-
tient clinic, told her that a
patient had died while tak-
ing the drug and that the
combination of Seroquel
and methadone might have
played a role.
Soon after, Zayas re-
called, two other doctors
told her as many as 10 CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY

patients at New York Dozens of protesters unite outside the FCC building in Washington to voice opposition to the agency’s 3-2 vote to end net neutrality rules.

FCC scraps net neutrality

methadone clinics had died
taking Seroquel and metha-
done together. Zayas said
she reported the deaths to
her company, drugmaker

amid protests — and fears

AstraZeneca, but that it
continued to aggressively
market the blockbuster
drug, even to methadone
clinics.
“Their goal was to get in
there and sell Seroquel,” she
told the Tribune in an inter-
view. “It was not, ‘Let’s
draw back. Let’s take a look
at the information.’ It was,
‘Get in there and sell.’ Every-
thing is sell, sell, sell.”
Alarmed at the inaction,
Zayas quit AstraZeneca and
filed a whistleblower law-
suit against the firm, alleg-
Turn to Drug pair, Page 10
Illinois joins states threatening charge more for faster
speeds.
More coverage discourage investment in
broadband networks.
suit over deregulation decision In a straight party-line
vote of 3-2, the Republi-
Decision has some area
firms worried about their
“What is the FCC do-
ing today?” asked FCC
By Tali Arbel and Barbara Ortutay can-controlled agency future. Business Chairman Ajit Pai, a Re-
Associated Press junked the longtime prin- publican. “Quite simply,
ciple that said all web we are restoring the light-
The Federal Commu- service providers like traffic must be treated oversight. touch framework that
nications Commission Verizon, Comcast and equally. The big telecommuni- has governed the internet
repealed the Obama-era AT&T a free hand to slow The move represents a cations companies had for most of its existence.”
net neutrality rules or block websites and departure from more lobbied to overturn the
Thursday, giving internet apps as they see fit or than a decade of federal rules, contending they Turn to FCC, Page 15

City seeks to sue estate Antioch man charged in

of teen killed by police
Move could shift
hefty liability for
bystander’s death
By Dan Hinkel
Chicago Tribune
In an unorthodox move,
lawyers for the city of Chi-
cago are seeking to sue the
estate of a teen shot to death
by a police officer two years
ago, alleging he was respon-
sible for the death of a
bystander the officer acci-
dentally killed as well.
In a motion filed Thurs-
day, the lawyers sought a
Cook County judge’s ap-
proval to bring a lawsuit
blaming Quintonio LeGrier,
19, for the shooting that also
killed 55-year-old Bettie
Jones.
The proposed suit rests
largely on allegations that
LeGrier tried to hit Officer
Robert Rialmo with an alu-
minum baseball bat before
the officer opened fire,
killing both the teenager
and Jones, a neighbor
standing nearby.
If successful, the suit
could shift some of the city’s
potentially hefty financial
liability for the death of an
innocent woman onto
LeGrier’s estate.
It is only the latest twist
in the litigation over the
shooting on the day after
Christmas 2015.
Turn to LeGrier, Page 9
Peruvian sex abuse case
Allegations denied
by ex-member of
elite Catholic society
By Nereida Moreno
and Matthew
Walberg
Chicago Tribune
JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE Jeffery Daniels left his
native Peru in 2001, moved
Trubisky’s promising progress to the U.S., married and
started a family, leaving
Blowout victory over Bengals showcased rookie behind the elite Catholic
quarterback’s growing confidence. Chicago Sports society he’d spent years
with for a life in the quiet
north Chicago suburb of
Antioch.
The music stops in River North Now, in the wake of an
explosive report issued ear-
The Rock ’n’ Roll McDonald’s will close Dec. 30, lier this year, Peruvian pros-
remodel and abandon its rock theme. Business ecutors have charged Dan-
iels and three other men in
connection with alleged
sexual abuse that occurred
at the Sodalitium Christi-
anae Vitae in Lima.
Peruvian prosecutors
could not be reached for
comment, but attorney
Hector Gadea, who repre-
sents the alleged victims,
said the four men were
charged with conspiracy to
commit sexual, physical
and psychological abuse.
Gadea said prosecutors
have asked a judge to order
the men’s arrests and deten-
tion for nine months while
authorities continue their
investigation into members
of the organization, also
Turn to Abuse, Page 8

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Tom Skilling’s forecast High 33 Low 25
forecast on back page of A+E section 170th year No. 349 © Chicago Tribune
8 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Friday, December 15, 2017
Lawsuit alleges bias in assessment
Berrios, from Page 1
sessment system, but he
declined to comment on the
specific allegations in the
complaint. The office has
repeatedly denied that as-
sessments are unfair or
plagued with errors.
“We again state that
property assessment in
Cook County is done cor-
rectly and fairly,” Tom
Shaer, the spokesman, said
in a written statement. “We
do not comment on possible
or pending litigation.”
Drawing heavily from the
Chicago Tribune’s series
“The Tax Divide” as well as
studies conducted by the
lawyers, the Illinois Depart-
ment of Revenue and a
number of academics, the
lawsuit alleges that Berrios
“systematically and illegally
shifts residential property
tax burdens” across the
county.
The investigation has
continued with an examina-
tion of commercial and in-
dustrial assessments, pub-
lished last week in collabo-
ration with ProPublica Illi-
nois.
Residential properties in
Hispanic and black census
tracts, for example, were
twice as likely as those in
white tracts to be over-
assessed by 20 percent or
more, according to the law-
yers’ study — yet another in
a long line of reports finding
the assessment system to be
error-ridden and deeply un-
fair.
The assessor’s office has
pushed back against critics,
saying there is no bias in its
assessments. Berrios has of-
fered no evidence to back
up the claim, however.
Attorneys filed the law-
suit on behalf of the Brigh-
ton Park Neighborhood
Council and the Logan
Square Neighborhood As-
sociation, nonprofit organi-
zations that help low-in-
come, minority residents
with housing matters.
“It is fundamentally un-
fair that families in this
community are required to
pay artificially inflated taxes
for their homes and bear a
disproportionate share of
the tax burden in Cook
County,” said Patrick Bros-
Berrios’ system hurts the poor, litigation claims
nan, of the Brighton Park
Neighborhood Council.
The lawsuit asks the
court to force the assessor’s
office to adopt new residen-
tial valuation methods that
produce fair and accurate
A group of public-interest lawyers filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that embat-
results; to disclose all re-
cords, methods and com-
tled Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios violated state and federal civil rights and
puter code necessary to
allow the public to replicate
housing laws by knowingly producing inaccurate assessments that punished poor
the assessor’s work; to ap-
point an independent moni-
and minority homeowners across the county.
tor who would ensure the
office follows the court’s
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, contends the county’s “residen-
tial property tax scheme is neither accurate nor uniform” and is “perpetuating in-
Antioch man denies alleged sex abuse in Peru
stitutional racism” by shifting the tax burden from wealthier, majority-white neigh-
Abuse , from Page 1
known as the SCV.
The charges were con-
firmed by an aide to Peruvi-
an Congressman Alberto de
Belaunde, who added that
Friday, December 15, 2017
whether he was trying to As pressure m
delay the completion of that assessor’s offic
study beyond the March tacking the ne
Democratic primary. widely inaccur
Berrios denied any attempt cused the exper
at delay, saying that he was it of being dis
cooperating with the re- spite internal st
view. ing the new mo
Following the joint Pro- formed the old
Publica Illinois-Tribune in- The 2015 new
vestigation last week that now part of t
exposed similar flaws in which argues
commercial and industrial knew residen
assessments, both Republi- ments were un
can Gov. Bruce Rauner and the public an
Democratic gubernatorial make improvem
candidate Chris Kennedy The office’s
called on Berrios to resign. and deceptions
Three members of Con- public trust and
gress, meanwhile, endorsed in the resident
Fritz Kaegi, one of Berrios’ tax system and
opponents. port with demo
Berrios also is chair of the ciples, which r
Cook County Democratic government off
Party. countable to the
Berrios’ campaign man- lawsuit says.
ager, Mario Lopez, re- The lawyers
sponded to the lawsuit, call- their own analy
ing it “politically motivat- studies by the T
ed.” Lopez contended that University of C
the suit’s “main focus ... Illinois Departm
stems only from claims in enue and other
articles” published by the their assertion t
Tribune. tial assessment
He called the “The Tax ridden and unfa
Divide” series — which In the pre
found the residential as- black and Hisp
sessment system under ing-class neigh
Berrios to be fundamentally North Lawndal
flawed and unfair — mis- Village, for inst
leading and inaccurate. tive tax rates w
While the lawsuit does high as in the
mention the Tribune’s find- mostly white
ings, it also cited Illinois and Lincoln Par
Department of Revenue hoods, the plai
statistics and conclusions found.
drawn by the University of In a fair s
Illinois at Chicago and Uni- effective tax ra
versity of Chicago to sup- nearly identic
port its allegations. neighborhoods
In addition to describing district.
inequities in the Cook The study als
ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
County system, the lawsuit as the percenta
ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE focuses on details revealed residents in a
The County Board summoned Joseph Berrios to testify in July about his
The County Board summoned Joseph Berrios to testify in July about his office’s methods. in “The Tax Divide” that increased, the ra
office’s methods. show Berrios’ office failed the assessor’s
orders; and to award mone- tee for Civil Rights. “It’s the two-term assessor as he to deliver on promised re- actual sale price
tary damages. same type of institutional heads into a re-election forms. — yet more ev
Lawsuit alleges
Representing the plain- racism that gave rise to campaign. In July 2015, the asses- the county’s re
tiffs are three Chicago law Chicago’s extreme housing Frank Shuftan, Preck- sor’s office issued a news sessment syste
offices: Miner, Barnhill & segregation through racial winkle’s chief spokesman, release stating that it had against minoriti
Galland, the public-interest steering, discriminatory said she just learned the “implemented a new state- The patte
firm where former Presi- zoning and restrictive cove- lawsuit had been filed. He of-the-art” residential as- decadeslong
bias in assessments
dent Barack Obama began nants.” said it would be reviewed by sessment model that im- housing disc
his legal career; Hughes, Berrios has been under county attorneys. proved accuracy by 50 per- redlining and o
Socol, Piers, Resnick & fire since the Tribune pub- “There is an ongoing re- cent and cut regressivity by have punished
Dym, a high-powered litiga- lished “The Tax Divide” in view of the residential 25 percent. and fueled seg
tion firm that has taken on June. Since then, the Cook property tax system led by Yet a Tribune analysis of Cook County,
numerous pro bono cases; County Board has sum- Civic Consulting Alliance,”
and the Chicago Lawyers moned Berrios to testify Shuftan added. “We have
Committee for Civil Rights, about his office’s methods great faith in the good work
residential assessments
suggested the office never
implemented the new mod-
alleges.
“Today, (th
practices are in
founded in the aftermath of and practices, and Board of CCA and look forward to el. Confronted by reporters, injuries on thes
By Jason Grotto and Hal Dardick
the Rev. Martin Luther King President Toni Preckwinkle their findings.”
Jr.’s assassination and police ordered an independent re- Preckwinkle, who calls
officials first said the office
had used both the old and
munities — by
disadvantage,
misconduct during ProPublica
Democratic National Con- ments.
Illinois
the 1968 view and Chicago
of residential Tribune
assess- herself a Berrios friend and
ally, announced that study
the new models, though
they refused to explain how.
capital out of
borhoods again
vention in Chicago. State and county law- in July, when commission- When reporters pointed out uating institutio
“What we see in this case makers introduced legisla- ers called Berrios before the numerous errors the office
is the perpetuation of a tion limiting the assessor’s County Board to answer
system that disproportion- ability to raise campaign questions about the assess-
made when running the
new model, officials
This article is a c
between the Ch
ately impacts communities funds, and the county’s in- ment system in the wake of
of color and continues to dependent inspector gen- publication of “The Tax
changed their story. In-
stead, they said they had
une and ProPub
an independen
strip capital from already eral launched an investiga- Divide.”
struggling neighborhoods,” tion of the office. Three months later, com-
used the old one as a
baseline — while again re-
journalism orga
said Aneel Chablani, of the All of the actions have missioners again grilled
Chicago Lawyers’ Commit- increased pressure on the Berrios, questioning
fusing to discuss their
methods.
jason.grotto@propub
hdardick@chicagotrib
ing lay people in the Catho- he is uncertain why such from any Peruvian or U.S. His mother b
lic faith. But the independ- allegations were levied officials regarding Daniels. to the Catholic o
ent investigators noted that against him.” It is unclear whether in 1995 becau
he led boys ages 12 to 16 in The SCV report, which Peruvian authorities have getting bullied a
Bible studies and group outlines alleged sexual initiated efforts to have needed suppor
activities and took them on abuse by former leaders and Daniels extradited, but a torship. Instead
mission trips. members of the society, spokesman for the FBI said leges, he was
borhoods to poorer, minority neighborhoods.
The lawsuit also alleges a lack of transparency in the office, contending the “se-
crecy is antithetical to democratic accountability and undermines public trust and
confidence in the residential property tax system.”
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that county assessments overvalue low-priced
homes while undervaluing high-priced ones. Known as regressivity, that flaw leads
to deep inequities in property taxes that break down along racial and ethnic lines,
with poor, black and Hispanic homeowners paying more than they should while
wealthier and white residents pay less.
As a result, the lawsuit argues, the county violated the Illinois Civil Rights Act,
equal protection clauses of the state and federal constitutions, and the federal Fair
Housing Act.
In response to the lawsuit, a spokesman for Berrios issued a blanket denial that
anything is amiss with the office’s assessment system, but he declined to comment
on the specific allegations in the complaint. The office has repeatedly denied that
assessments are unfair or plagued with errors.
“We again state that property assessment in Cook County is done correctly and
fairly,” Tom Shaer, the spokesman, said in a written statement. “We do not comment
on possible or pending litigation.”
Drawing heavily from the Chicago Tribune’s series “The Tax Divide” as well as
studies conducted by the lawyers, the Illinois Department of Revenue and a num-
ber of academics, the lawsuit alleges that Berrios “systematically and illegally shifts
residential property tax burdens” across the county.
The investigation has continued with an examination of commercial and indus-
trial assessments, published last week in collaboration with ProPublica Illinois.
Residential properties in Hispanic and black census tracts, for example, were
twice as likely as those in white tracts to be over-assessed by 20 percent or more,
according to the lawyers’ study —yet another in a long line of reports finding the as-
sessment system to be error-ridden and deeply unfair.
The assessor’s office has pushed back against critics, saying there is no bias in its
assessments. Berrios has offered no evidence to back up the claim, however.
Attorneys filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
and the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, nonprofit organizations that help
low-income, minority residents with housing matters.
“It is fundamentally unfair that families in this community are required to pay
artificially inflated taxes for their homes and bear a disproportionate share of the
tax burden in Cook County,” said Patrick Brosnan, of the Brighton Park Neighbor-
hood Council.
The lawsuit asks the court to force the assessor’s office to adopt new residential
valuation methods that produce fair and accurate results; to disclose all records,
methods and computer code necessary to allow the public to replicate the assessor’s
work; to appoint an independent monitor who would ensure the office follows the
court’s orders; and to award monetary damages.
Representing the plaintiffs are three Chicago law offices: Miner, Barnhill & Gal-
land, the public-interest firm where former President Barack Obama began his legal
career; Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym, a high-powered litigation firm that
has taken on numerous pro bono cases; and the Chicago Lawyers Committee for
Civil Rights, founded in the aftermath of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassi-
nation and police misconduct during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in
Chicago.
“What we see in this case is the perpetuation of a system that disproportionately
impacts communities of color and continues to strip capital from already struggling
neighborhoods,” said Aneel Chablani, of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil
Rights. “It’s the same type of institutional racism that gave rise to Chicago’s extreme
housing segregation through racial steering, discriminatory zoning and restrictive
covenants.”
Berrios has been under fire since the Tribune published “The Tax Divide” in
June. Since then, the Cook County Board has summoned Berrios to testify about his
office’s methods and practices, and Board President Toni Preckwinkle ordered an
independent review of residential assessments.
State and county lawmakers introduced legislation limiting the assessor’s ability
to raise campaign funds, and the county’s independent inspector general launched
an investigation of the office.
All of the actions have increased pressure on the two-term assessor as he heads
into a re-election campaign.
Frank Shuftan, Preckwinkle’s chief spokesman, said she just learned the lawsuit
had been filed. He said it would be reviewed by county attorneys.
“There is an ongoing review of the residential property tax system led by Civic
Consulting Alliance,” Shuftan added. “We have great faith in the good work of CCA
and look forward to their findings.”
Preckwinkle, who calls herself a Berrios friend and ally, announced that study in
July, when commissioners called Berrios before the County Board to answer ques-
tions about the assessment system in the wake of publication of “The Tax Divide.”
Three months later, commissioners again grilled Berrios, questioning whether
he was trying to delay the completion of that study beyond the March Democratic
primary. Berrios denied any attempt at delay, saying that he was cooperating with
the review.
Following the joint ProPublica Illinois-Tribune investigation last week that ex-
posed similar flaws in commercial and industrial assessments, both Republican Gov.
Bruce Rauner and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy called on
Berrios to resign. Three members of Congress, meanwhile, endorsed Fritz Kaegi,
one of Berrios’ opponents.
Berrios also is chair of the Cook County Democratic Party.
Berrios’ campaign manager, Mario Lopez, responded to the lawsuit, calling it
“politically motivated.” Lopez contended that the suit’s “main focus ... stems only
from claims in articles” published by the Tribune.
He called the “The Tax Divide” series —which found the residential assessment
system under Berrios to be fundamentally flawed and unfair —misleading and inac-
curate.
While the lawsuit does mention the Tribune’s findings, it also cited Illinois De-
partment of Revenue statistics and conclusions drawn by the University of Illinois
at Chicago and University of Chicago to support its allegations.
In addition to describing inequities in the Cook County system, the lawsuit fo-
cuses on details revealed in “The Tax Divide” that show Berrios’ office failed to de-
liver on promised reforms.
In July 2015, the assessor’s office issued a news release stating that it had “imple-
mented a new state-of-the-art” residential assessment model that improved accu-
racy by 50 percent and cut regressivity by 25 percent.
Yet a Tribune analysis of residential assessments suggested the office never im-
plemented the new model. Confronted by reporters, officials first said the office
had used both the old and the new models, though they refused to explain how.
When reporters pointed out numerous errors the office made when running the
new model, officials changed their story. Instead, they said they had used the old
one as a baseline — while again refusing to discuss their methods.
 As pressure mounted, the assessor’s office began attacking the new model as
widely inaccurate and accused the experts who built it of being dishonest, despite
internal studies showing the new model outperformed the old one.
The 2015 news release is now part of the lawsuit, which argues that Berrios knew
residential assessments were unfair, misled the public and failed to make improve-
ments.
The office’s “evasions and deceptions undermine public trust and confidence in
the residential property tax system and do not comport with democratic principles,
which require that government officials be accountable to the public,” the lawsuit
says.
The lawyers relied on their own analysis as well as studies by the Tribune, the
University of Chicago, the Illinois Department of Revenue and others to support
their assertion that residential assessments are error-ridden and unfair.
In the predominantly black and Hispanic working-class neighborhoods of North
Lawndale and Little Village, for instance, effective tax rates were twice as high as
in the affluent and mostly white Gold Coast and Lincoln Park neighborhoods, the
plaintiffs’ study found.
In a fair system, the effective tax rate would be nearly identical for all neighbor-
hoods in a taxing district.
The study also found that as the percentage of white residents in a census tract
increased, the ratio between the assessor’s values and actual sale prices decreased —
yet more evidence that the county’s residential assessment system is biased against
minorities.
The pattern fits a decadeslong history of housing discrimination, redlining and
other ills that have punished minorities and fueled segregation in Cook County, the
lawsuit alleges.
“Today, (the office’s) practices are injecting new injuries on these same commu-
nities — by taxing their disadvantage, stripping capital out of their neighborhoods
again, and perpetuating institutional racism.”

This article is a collaboration between the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois,
an independent, nonprofit journalism organization.
 CHICAGO SPORTS Cubs starting

ODD MAN OUT?

pitcher
John Lackey
allowed a
league-worst
24 home runs
Paul Sullivan: With the addition of Jose Quintana and the imminennt return of in the first
Kyle Hendricks, John Lackey and his 5.20 ERA could soon be without
with a rotation spot. half of the
season.

David Haugh: Both teams won in crosstown trade that gives Chicago new energy. NICK WASS/AP

Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune Tuesday, July 18, 2017 Breaking news at chicagotribune.com

City official joked of ‘safari’ tours

Water superintendent detailed attempted gun sent to multiple high-rank-
ing water department work-
deals, made light of shootings in racist emails ers that touted a fake “Chi-
cago Safari” package. It
cited the number of shoot-
By Ray Long dog report revealed Mon- arms started the investiga- ings during a July Fourth
and Todd Lighty day. tion over his use of a gov- weekend and guaranteed
Chicago Tribune The latest development ernment account for per- tourists would observe “at
in the ongoing investiga- sonal business, which is least one kill and five crime
In a city scarred by a deep tion, which the Tribune first against city rules. And it scenes” and also see “lots of
and troubling history with disclosed in May, emerged quickly spread to other animals in their natural
guns, a supervisor in the as Inspector General Jo- emails sent by Hansen, who habitat.”
scandal-plagued water de- seph Ferguson detailed how is white and the son of a Hansen’s racially
partment used his city email ousted district water Super- former alderman, to other charged emails included
account to negotiate fire- intendent Paul Hansen water department bosses, messages to fellow workers
arms deals and make light of emailed with individuals according to City Hall purported to be in Ebonics,
deadly Fourth of July vi- over personal purchases or sources. sometimes called American
olence in black neighbor- sales of at least four firearms In his quarterly report, black English, and a picture JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

hoods by offering “Chicago and five cars. Ferguson revealed a fresh A new watchdog report reveals additional inflammatory
Safari” tours, a new watch- Those emails about fire- string of anti-black emails Turn to Emails, Page 5 emails in an investigation the Tribune first disclosed in May.

Republican
health care
bill succumbs
Senate GOP leader pivots, seeks repeal
legislation as effort loses 2 more votes
By Lisa Mascaro and
Noam N. Levey
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Re-
publican efforts to replace
the Affordable Care Act
collapsed in the Senate on
Monday evening as two
more GOP senators an-
nounced they would op-
pose the latest plan backed
by their party’s leadership.
The announcements by
Sens. Mike Lee of Utah
and Jerry Moran of Kan-
sas brought to four the
number of Republican
senators opposed to bring-
ing the bill to the Senate
NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
floor for debate. With all
said late Monday that he
will instead try to hold a
vote in the coming days on
a repeal-only bill, with a
two-year delay to give
Congress time to pass a
replacement health care
law.
Prospects for such a bill
remain unclear since it
could leave millions of
Americans without cov-
erage and wreak havoc on
the insurance industry.
“Regretfully, it is now
apparent that the effort to
repeal and immediately
replace the failure of Oba-
macare will not be suc-
cessful,” McConnell, R-
Ky., said in a statement.

ALL BARK, NO PARKS

Senate Democrats against
the bill, their opposition
was enough to kill the
current measure.
Delphine Ruiz brought her dog Remington, left, from her Old Irving Park neighborhood to Jackson Bark on Monday With the failure of the
repeal-and-replace legis-
where he can meet new friends like Nani Alaka’i. Efforts are underway to try to bring a more permanent dog park to lation, Senate Majority
the South Side, which could lose Jackson Bark under a plan to build a Tiger Woods golf course in Jackson Park. Page 5 Leader Mitch McConnell
The abrupt failure of
the GOP measure marked
another defeat in the
years-long effort by Re-
publicans to repeal former
President Barack Obama’s
Turn to Health, Page 8

County Board to put Accidental drowning is ruling

Berrios on hot seat in mysterious death of city cop
Assessor to face questioning on tax system Police looked into failed to show up at a monly sold under the
Memorial Day weekend brand name Xanax.
By Jason Grotto assessor’s office overval- apparent suicide get-together, that her “In combination with
Chicago Tribune/ProPublica ued low-priced homes of officer husband friends went to her home other central nervous sys-
while undervaluing high- and asked her son to help tem depressants such as
With questions swirling priced ones. These dispar- MICHELLE KANAAR/
FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
By Jason Meisner open her locked bathroom ethyl alcohol, alprazolam
around his record as Cook ities in assessments — and Jeremy Gorner door. They found her na- can become toxic at low
County assessor, Joseph known as regressivity — Chicago Tribune ked body submerged in concentrations,” the re-
Berrios will take led to inequities Old books, new about 10 inches of water, port stated.
the unprece- in property tax On the day she was her hair pulled back into a At the time of Dina
dented step bills, giving the Newberry fair found dead in the bathtub ponytail and cellphone on Markham’s death, author-
Tuesday of de- wealthy unsanc- This summer from the of her Northwest Side the floor by the tub, the ities were in the midst of a
fending his office tioned tax breaks Newberry Library, the home, Chicago police Of- records show. criminal investigation into
before the Cook while penalizing annual book fair and the ficer Dina Markham sent a Autopsy reports pro- the death of her husband,
County Board af- low-income resi- Bughouse Square De- desperate, predawn text vided to the Tribune on Donald, himself a Chicago
ter a Chicago dents. bates. Rick Kogan, A+E message to a friend. Monday show the Cook police sergeant, and
Tribune investi- In the weeks “Help. Please ... no kid- County medical examin- whether his death was a
gation exposed since, mounting ding,” read the message er’s office has ruled homicide, the Tribune has
widespread in- Berrios pressure has put sent just after 4 a.m. on Markham, 47, died of an previously reported.
equities in the the assessor on ■ River levels crest, May 28, according to in- accidental drowning after While a police spokes-
county’s property tax sys- the defensive. The county’s but risks remain as vestigative reports made consuming a dangerous man had previously said
tem. independent inspector area floodwaters ex- public Monday. mix of alcohol and the Dina Markham’s death
Published in June, “The pected to stick around. It wasn’t until 14 hours powerful anti-anxiety
Tax Divide” showed the Turn to Berrios, Page 6 Chicagoland, Page 4 later, after Markham drug alprazolam, com- Turn to Drowning, Page 6

Chicago Weather Center: Complete $1.99 city and suburbs, $2.50 elsewhere
Tom Skilling’s forecast High 80 Low 65
forecast on back page of A+E section 170th year No. 199 © Chicago Tribune
 ALL BARK
Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Delphine Ruiz brought her dog Remington, left,

County Board to put where he can meet new friends like Nani Alaka’i
the South Side, which could lose Jackson Bark un
Berrios on hot seat
Assessor to face questioning on tax system
By Jason Grotto County Board to p
Chicago Tribune/ProPublica

Berrios on hot sea

With questions swirling around his record as Cook County assessor, Joseph Ber-
rios will take the unprecedented step Tuesday of defending his office before the
Cook County Board after a Chicago Tribune investigation exposed widespread in-
equities in the county’s property tax system.
Assessor to face questioning on tax
Published in June, “The Tax Divide” showed By Jason Grotto
the assessor’s assessor’s office o
office overvalued
low-priced homes while undervaluing high-priced Chicagoones. These disparities ued
Tribune/ProPublica in as-low-priced
sessments — known as regressivity — led to inequities in property tax bills, giving undervaluin
while
the wealthy unsanctioned tax breaks while penalizing Withlow-income
questions swirling
residents. priced ones. These
In the weeks since, mounting pressure has put around his record
the assessor as Cook
on the defensive.ities
The in assessm
County assessor, Joseph known as regress
county’s independent inspector general opened an investigation;
Berrios will take lawmakers at the led to in
state and local levels proposed legislation to limit
the the assessor’s
unprece- in prope
ability to raise campaign contributions from tax attorneys;
dented and
step a bills, giv
bill has been introduced in the General Assembly that would
Tuesday of de- re- wealthy
quire greater transparency. fending his office tioned tax
Among the questions Berrios is likely to facebefore the Cook
at Tuesday’s hear- while pe
County Board
ing: Why did his office tout and then quietly abandon a new resi- af- low-incom
dential valuation model funded by the MacArthur ter Foundation
a Chicago de- dents.
Tribune investi- In the
signed to reduce regressivity?
gation exposed Berrios since, m
After the Tribune reported that the assessor’s office hadn’tin-
widespread im- Berrios pressure
plemented the new model, despite issuing a July 2015 news
equities in the re- the asses
lease saying it had, Berrios and his staff criticized the model as well as the experts
county’s property tax sys- the defensive. The
who led the effort to create it. tem. independent in
Published
Both of those experts — Robert Weissbourd, president in June,
of the “The firm RW
consulting
Ventures, and University of Chicago public policy Tax professor
Divide” showed
Christopherthe Berry
Turn—to Berrios, Pa
are scheduled to testify at the hearing.
Among other criticisms, the assessor’s office said it had told Weissbourd and
Berry before issuing the news release that their model was flawed. After the series
ran, Deputy Assessor Tom Shaer produced three emails that Tomhe said Skilling’s
proved the two forecast H
had “the temerity” to mislead the Tribune into believing otherwise.
Since then, Weissbourd has produced dozens of additional emails showing that
the issues raised in the messages Shaer cited were part of a multiyear effort to test
and implement the new model and had been resolved before the office produced
the news release.
County commissioners also may address the question at the heart of the con-
troversy over the models: how exactly the assessor values the county’s 1.5 million
residential properties. The office has refused to disclose crucial details about its
methods.
One of Berrios’ recent attempts to defend his record has already evaporated. Late
last month, the assessor’s office posted on its website a news release that cited a
study by a prominent research organization as proof that the county’s assessments
are fair and accurate. Berrios invoked the same study during a rare television inter-
view, also in late June.
However, a close examination of the study shows that its focus was on tax rates,
exemptions and other policy issues in all 50 states; it was not an evaluation of how
accurately the assessor’s office values property.
Adam Langley, a lead author of the study by the Massachusetts-based Lincoln
Institute of Land Policy, confirmed that county officials mischaracterized the re-
port.
“Our study is not about assessment accuracy,” Langley said. “That’s a separate
issue.”
The institute issued a statement to the assessor’s office as well as county com-
missioners last week in an effort to set the record straight. Two days later, the asses-
sor’s office removed the news release from its site “to do further work regarding it,”
Shaer said.
Tuesday’s hearing will see Berrios, who also is chairman of the Cook County
Democratic Party, facing off against many commissioners who rely on the party for
political support.
Berrios received more than half of his campaign contributions from the property
tax appeal industry, the Tribune has reported. Appeals increased dramatically un-
der Berrios, but an analysis carried out in cooperation with the University of Chi-
cago’s Berry found the process makes the assessment system even less fair.
Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who has introduced an ordinance to block
the assessor from receiving contributions from tax attorneys and other businesses
that file appeals, was among the first commissioners to request that Berrios testify.
Berrios will appear at a Finance Committee hearing with the full board in atten-
dance.
“At the heart of all this are the working people who are already hurting from in-
creases in property taxes,” Garcia said in an interview. “We can’t tolerate a system
that may be penalizing them. It’s just not fair.”
A changing story
In seeking to defend its assessment practices, Berrios’ office sent four pages of
bullet points to county commissioners contending, among other assertions, that the
assessment model funded by the MacArthur Foundation produced inaccurate re-
sults. (The MacArthur Foundation has been a significant funder of the independent
news organization ProPublica, which is collaborating on this story with the Tri-
bune.)
“Simply put, this so-called ‘improvement’ is unfit for exclusive, primary or even
somewhat primary use,” the document stated.
And in television and radio interviews after “The Tax Divide” was published,
Shaer said the office had been optimistic about the MacArthur-funded model at the
time but later discovered it produced erroneous results.
Until the Tribune launched its investigation, however, Berrios had offered noth-
ing but public praise for the new model.
A July 2015 news release headlined “Cook County Assessor Berrios Implements
New State of the Art Residential Assessment Model” described it as a “breakthrough”
that improved accuracy by 50 percent and lowered regressivity by 25 percent.
As recently as April 2016, the assessor’s office was encouraging reporters to look
at the model as evidence its assessments were fair and accurate. Officials even gave
Weissbourd and Berry permission to provide reporters with a slide presentation
showing how the new model improved assessments.
Around the same time, Berrios’ office also provided reporters with studies that
concluded the new model outperformed the old one on every measure used by as-
sessment experts around the world to evaluate fairness and accuracy.
When the Tribune analyzed millions of property tax records from the 2015 tax
year, however, the results suggested the assessor had not actually implemented the
new model.
Presented with those results in August 2016, officials then stated they were us-
ing the new model in conjunction with the old one, though they would not disclose
how they did so. That was news to Weissbourd, Berry and MacArthur Foundation
President Julia Stasch, all of whom had been quoted in the news release.
By then, the Tribune had used open records laws to obtain the new model along
with computer records showing the results the office obtained from it. An examina-
tion of the computer code showed the office had made numerous errors when it ran
the new model.
When those errors were pointed out during a September 2016 interview, the as-
sessor’s office changed its story again, saying the new model had not been imple-
mented because it had “issues” and produced inaccurate results. The office also said
Weissbourd and Berry had been told about the problems, which the two said was
untrue.
After publication of the Tribune series, Shaer produced three emails that he
said proved the assessor’s office had informed Weissbourd and Berry that the new
model was flawed before issuing the news release. One of the emails wasn’t about
the model at all; the others, sent in 2012 and in 2013, related to ongoing discussions
about how to implement the new model.
The set of emails provided by Weissbourd show that the issues raised in those
messages were resolved. There is no evidence in the emails that the assessor’s office
alerted Weissbourd or Berry about issues with the new model before issuing the
news release.
Two weeks before the 2015 announcement, the office’s head of residential valua-
tion, Al Sarro, wrote to Weissbourd seeking feedback and requesting quotes for the
news release announcing the launch of the model.
“Please take a look and add your thoughts,” Sarro wrote in an email, which was
provided by Weissbourd. “And also can you reach out to Chris (Berry) and Julia
(Stasch) for any quotes they would like to add?”
When asked to comment on this set of emails, Shaer said the assessor’s office
stands by its earlier statements that the model’s developers had been informed it
was flawed.
Criticisms refuted
When Berrios held a news conference in June to address the findings of “The
Tax Divide,” he brought along a researcher from a for-profit government services
company that holds $65 million in county contracts, including a $30 million con-
tract to set up a new property tax computer system for the county.
Richard Borst, of Tyler Technologies, criticized the MacArthur-funded model as
well the Tribune’s analysis.
At the news conference, Borst handed out two pages of talking points that said,
among other arguments, that the Tribune did not disclose enough technical infor-
mation to make its analysis credible. But when a Tribune reporter pointed out that a
100-plus-page study had been posted online, Borst acknowledged he hadn’t read it.
Borst also repeated assertions by the assessor’s office that the analysis had in-
cluded invalid sales involving the liquidation of estates of the deceased.
In fact, the analysis screened out those sales and other transactions that are not
considered valid; the study was vetted by three industry experts, including two who
helped write standards for the International Association of Assessing Officers.
Borst also took aim at the MacArthur-funded model, saying Berry and Weiss-
bourd’s team had made “rookie mistakes” that caused the model to be “fundamen-
tally flawed.” For example, he said the new model “disregards location” and makes
no use of geographic information systems, or GIS, to value property.
However, the new model does include location information. As for GIS, Berry
said he and his team of statisticians had wanted to use GIS programs to further im-
prove the accuracy and fairness of assessments, but the assessor’s office told them it
didn’t have the necessary technical ability.
“It’s shocking that Mr. Borst is defending the assessor’s regressive assessments,
especially without even having looked at their models,” Berry said. “Rather than get
distracted by this nonsense, the assessor should get on with the business of fixing
their unfair system.”
Borst’s firm declined to make him available to be interviewed for this story.
Asked at the news conference if he had examined the model that the assessor’s
office actually uses, Borst said he hadn’t.
“That’s not for me to say,” he said. “That’s not my job.”

Jason Grotto is a reporter with ProPublica Illinois, an independent news organiza-

tion. Grotto reported parts of this story and the first three installments in “The Tax
Divide” series as a member of the Tribune staff. This story is part of a collaboration
between ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune.
 Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune Saturday, October 28, 2017 Breaking news at chicagotribune.com

According to a gun trace report, many weapons recovered at Chicago crime scenes
came from just 10 area businesses, with one in Melrose Park leaping into the list

CHRIS CARLSON/AP

Anthony Rizzo displays his

Roberto Clemente Award before
Game 3 of the World Series.

Rizzo
to cancer
patients:
Be strong
Cubs first baseman earns
Clemente Award for work
with kids with illnesses
By Paul Sullivan ZBIGNIEW BZDAK/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Chicago Tribune A Nagant revolver sold in March 2015 at Suburban Sporting Goods in Melrose Park was used four months later in a killing, police records say.

Handful of shops tied

Anthony Rizzo’s charitable
contributions and involvement
with pediatric cancer patients
earned him baseball’s coveted
Roberto Clemente Award for 2017.
The award, named after the

to 25% of ‘crime guns’

Pirates Hall of Fame outfielder, is
presented annually to the Major
League Baseball player who best
represents the game through “ex-
traordinary character, community
involvement, philanthropy and
positive contributions” on and off
the field.
A survivor of Hodgkin lym-
phoma early in his professional
career, Rizzo, 28, created the
Anthony Rizzo Family Founda-
tion to support children battling
cancer, soothe their families and
fund cancer research. He received
the award Friday night at Minute
Maid Park before Game 3 of the
Dodgers-Astros World Series.
“Obviously with what Roberto
did, he kind of set the bar for all
athletes, especially baseball play-
ers, in all of his charitable work,
everything he did giving back,”
Rizzo said. “To be a part of this
award and (included among) all
the past winners, it’s insane to see
where our foundation has come
from and so humbled to be part of
this.”
Rizzo is the third Cubs player to
receive the award, following Rick
Sutcliffe in 1987 and Sammy Sosa
By Annie Sweeney, Jason Meisner and Jeremy Gorner
Chicago Tribune
Timothy Ward was a convicted felon barred from possessing a
firearm on the night he fatally shot a man during an argument on
Chicago’s West Side.
Minutes after the July 2015 slaying, police stopped a light-colored
van and found the suspected murder weapon — a black revolver —
under the front passenger seat where Ward had been sitting.
The gun had been sold just four months earlier at Suburban
Sporting Goods in Melrose Park, a cramped strip mall store about 10
miles from the gritty block where 25-year-old Charzelle Hayes was
killed, according to Chicago police. Ballistics matched the Nagant
revolver to bullets removed from Hayes’ body, police said.
How the weapon made its on Sunday showed nearly one
way in such a short time from a quarter of guns recovered at
retail purchase into the hands of crime scenes over a recent four-
Ward, a gang member who had year period came from just 10
recently been released from pris- Chicago-area businesses.
on for a robbery conviction, And Suburban Sporting
reflects one of the most persist- Goods has made a startling leap
ent and vexing problems in into the top 10 list, according to
stemming the city’s epidemic of the report, a collaboration
gun violence, experts say. among the mayor’s office, Chi- ABEL URIBE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A sweeping gun trace report A family photo of Charzelle Hayes, 25, who was shot and killed in July
Turn to Rizzo, Page 2 to be publicly released by the city Turn to Guns, Page 4 2015 with a gun traced back to the Melrose Park gun shop.

Berrios denies delaying tax study

Preckwinkle sought 3 months ago
Assessor says he won’t
set deadline for report
By Hal Dardick
Chicago Tribune
A review of Cook County’s
fundamentally flawed property
tax system is stuck in neutral
more than three months after
board President Toni Preckwin-
kle ordered it up, but Assessor
CHRIS WALKER/CHICAGO TRIBUNE Joseph Berrios denies he’s try-
GET READY FOR FLU SEASON ing to delay the study until after
he runs for re-election in
Irene Corpus, 67, of Chicago, gets a free flu shot Thursday at the March.
McGuane Park field house on the South Side. Researchers at the Uni- Appearing at a budget hear-
versity of Chicago say this year’s flu season may be worse than average, ing Friday, Berrios could offer
but it’s not likely to be as bad as last year’s. Chicagoland, Page 3 no timeline on the study’s com-
pletion, The uncertainty remains four
drawing criti- months since the Chicago Trib-
cism from a une published its “Tax Divide”
county com- series. The investigation con-
missioner cluded the county’s property tax
who wanted system created an unequal bur-
answers. Lat- den on residents, handing huge
er, a Preck- financial breaks to homeowners
winkle aide who are well-off while puni-
Berrios would only shing those who have the least,
say they were particularly people living in
“making deliberate progress minority communities.
and continuing to engage with Preckwinkle, who is seeking a
the various stakeholders.” third term next year, is an ally of
“Everyone’s goal is to get this Berrios, the powerful county
right, and our belief is that by Democratic chairman. In July,
continuing to work in good Preckwinkle announced that an
faith, we can achieve that,” outside evaluation of the prop-
Preckwinkle spokesman Frank
Shuftan said. Turn to Berrios, Page 13

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Tom Skilling’s forecast High 44 Low 32 forecast on back of Chicago Sports 170th year No. 301 © Chicago Tribune

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 Timothy Ward was a convicted felon barred from possessing a
firearm on the night he fatally shot a man during an argument on
Chicago’s West Side.
Minutes after the July 2015 slaying, police stopped a light-colored
van and found the suspected murder weapon — a black revolver —
under the front passenger seat where Ward had been sitting.
The gun had been sold just four months earlier at Suburban
Sporting Goods in Melrose Park, a cramped strip mall store about 10
miles from the gritty block where 25-year-old Charzelle Hayes was
killed, according to Chicago police. Ballistics matched the Nagant
revolver to bullets removed from Hayes’Sunday,
body,October
police28,said.
2017

How the weapon made its on Sunday showed nearly one

Berrios denies delaying
way in such a short time from a quarter of guns recovered at
retail purchase into the hands of crime scenes over a recent four-

tax study Preckwinkle

Ward, a gang member who had year period came from just 10
recently been released from pris- Chicago-area businesses.
on for a robbery conviction, And Suburban Sporting
sought 3 months ago
reflects one of the most persist- Goods has made a startling leap
ent and vexing problems in into the top 10 list, according to
stemming the city’s epidemic of the report, a collaboration
gun violence, expertsAssessor
say. saysamong
he won’t set deadline
the mayor’s office,for report
Chi-
A sweeping gun trace report A family photo of Charzelle H
By Hal Dardick
to be publicly released by the city Turn to Guns, Page 4 2015 with a gun traced back t
A review of Cook County’s fundamentally flawed property tax system is stuck in
neutral more than three months after board President Toni Preckwinkle ordered it
up, but Assessor Joseph Berrios denies he’s trying to delay the study until after he
runs for re-election in March.

Berrios denies delayin

Appearing at a budget hearing Friday, Berrios could offer no timeline on the
study’s completion, drawing criticism from a county commissioner who wanted
answers. Later, a Preckwinkle aide would only say they were “making deliberate

Preckwinkle sought 3
progress and continuing to engage with the various stakeholders.”
“Everyone’s goal is to get this right, and our belief is that by continuing to work
in good faith, we can achieve that,” Preckwinkle spokesman Frank
Shuftan said. Assessor says he won’t pletion,
drawing c
The uncertainty remains four setmonths
deadlinesince theforChicago
reportTri- cism from
bune published its “Tax Divide” series. The investigation conclud- county c
ed the county’s property tax system created
By Hal Dardick an unequal burden mission
on residents, handing huge financial breaks
Chicago Tribune to homeowners who who wan
are well-off while punishing those who have the least, particularly answers.
people living in minority communities.A review of Cook County’s er, a Pr
Preckwinkle, who is seeking fundamentally
a third term next flawed property
year, is an ally Berrios winkle
tax system is stuck
of Berrios, the powerful county Democratic chairman. In July, in neutral Berrios would o
Preckwinkle announced that an more thanevaluation
outside three months after tax assessment say they w
of the property
board President Toni Preckwin- “making deliberate prog
system was underway, with a group called the
kle ordered Civic
it up, Consulting
but Assessor Alliance heading it to engage w
and continuing
up. She did soTRIBUNE
CHRIS WALKER/CHICAGO as Berrios was being grilled
Joseph by commissioners
Berrios duringthe
denies he’s try- a hearing
variousinstakeholders.”
the
wake of the Tribune series. ing to delay the study until after “Everyone’s goal is to get
On Friday, Berrios was back on the hot seat at his annual
he runs for re-election in right, budget hearing. He belief is tha
and our
e flu shot Thursday at the from Commissioner
faced questions March.Richard Boykin, an Oak Parkcontinuing Democrat who to work in g
h Side. Researchers at the Uni-
represents large swaths of the West Side and Maywood, areas where many low- achieve th
Appearing at a budget hear- faith, we can
ason may be worse
income than average,
African-American ing Friday,
homeowners Berrios could offer Preckwinkle spokesman Fr
live.
ar’s. Chicagoland, Pagehas
“What 3 happened (sinceno timeline onannouncement)?”
Preckwinkle’s the study’s com- Boykin Shuftan said.
asked.
Berrios said the Consulting Alliance and Tyler Group — a contractor being paid
to work on county computer systems — were looking into the issue.
“There are various different (assessment) models out there,” Berrios said. “The
Chicago Weather Center: Complete $1.99 city and suburbs, $
orecast model 44 Cook
Highthat 32 forecast
Low County has used has been one that has been very efficient, and
they are looking at it all, and if theyon
canback
comeof upChicago better system,170th
with aSports we willyear No. 301 © Chi
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lutely use a better system.”

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12pk., 12oz. Bottles
 Pressed on how quickly the work would be done, Berrios said the Consulting Al-
liance had been “given space” to work in his office, but he wasn’t going to give the
group a deadline.
“Whether I like the report or don’t like the report, they’re gonna come up with
an independent report, and for me to tell them they need it by a certain date and
demand that they finish it by a certain date, to me would be unfair to them,” Berrios
said. “They’re coming in to look at not only the system, they’re looking at the entire
system within the office. And they’re going to look at the Board of (Tax) Review
also.”
A few minutes later, Commissioner Peter Silvestri, an Elmwood Park Republi-
can, asked about the status of the review. Responded Berrios: “I can’t tell them what
to do.”
The hearing came a day after county Clerk David Orr, an independent Democrat,
endorsed first-time candidate Fritz Kaegi in his bid to unseat to unseat Berrios in
the March primary election.
Orr said he’s frustrated that there have been no changes since the Tribune’s sto-
ries ran in June. In the meantime, thousands of homes have been reassessed, he
said. And despite Preckwinkle’s July announcement, two steering committee meet-
ings to move that process along have since been canceled, Orr said.
“I believe the assessor’s problem is enormous and it is getting not enough atten-
tion,” Orr said in a recent interview. “This is like this great big threat is all around us,
and we’re still peddling along with our tricycle.”
After Friday’s hearing, Berrios said further meetings were put off because law-
yers for the county and Consulting Alliance were determining “how far they could
go legally,” given court cases “that the county’s defending right now.”
“It had nothing to do with us,” Berrios said when asked if political motivations
played a role. “We’ve been cooperating.”
Berrios said he expected another steering committee meeting in the next week
or two. “I want them to tell me where they’re at,” he said.
The steering committee met once, in August, when a timeline for the study pro-
cess was distributed. Officials hoped to agree on “specific improvement areas” by
mid-November and have “solutions developed” before Christmas.
Asked by the Tribune if there was any effort to push off completion of the study
until after the March primary, Berrios said: “No, not all. I want to know what the
heck is going on.”
“If they come in with an idea that makes the system better, I will implement it
immediately,” Berrios said
It wouldn’t be the first time Berrios promised changes to the system.
The “Tax Divide” series noted that Berrios issued a July 2015 news release stat-
ing that his office had adopted new state-of-the-art computer models designed to
improve accuracy and address inequalities in the assessment system put together
with the help of outside experts. Berrios never fully implemented that system, the
series found.
In July, Berrios said the newer system — a model backed by a MacArthur Foun-
dation grant — was inaccurate. The new model was created under the direction of
Christopher Berry, a University of Chicago public policy professor who has main-
tained no further studies are needed and would be “a waste of time.”
After Friday’s hearing, Boykin said he remains concerned about the assessment
system.
“There’s no timeline that he put forward that taxpayers of Cook County are go-
ing to get an assurance that we’re going to get a system in place that’s going to be fair
in terms of these assessments,” Boykin said.
 Taxpayers, he added, “would say the system is broken, and it’s badly broken and
in need of serous repair. Quite frankly, we can’t just have window dressing, and put
these committees forward to get through the next election.”