Regarding Sunday’s article on the Cook County assessor’s office (“Misclassifications, missed millions”): I am amazed at the complete incompetence of Assessor Fritz Kaegi and his staff. How can he continue to blame everyone else past and present for the ridiculous assessments homeowners are receiving when he was elected to bring fairness to property taxes?
Homeowners’ lives have been upended because of their errors, which they refuse to admit. Can the assessor be recalled for gross incompetence?
— Sandra Flanagan, Chicago
Property tax alternative
The Tribune reported recently on massive failings by the Cook Country assessor’s office. It seems the assessor’s office can’t keep track of all the properties it assesses, and for the ones it does, it routinely makes big mistakes on assessments.
While articles like this are researched and written for the benefit of the public, I wish they had spent this time researching and writing on a suitable alternative for property taxes in the first place.
I call property taxes the absurd tax because they are the only tax that doesn’t take into consideration a person’s ability to pay it. Think of the millions of seniors who are no longer working. I remember the jolt I got years ago when I was unemployed for much of the year, and then I got my property tax bill. That was 30 years ago, and I have been fighting property taxes ever since.
My biggest single proposal regards public education funding. Two-thirds of property taxes go for public education. I say shift that to a separate income tax — separate so that the money doesn’t get spent on other things.
Everybody would then get enough tax relief as property taxes become affordable. But that would only encourage public agencies to spend more, so that solution would be only temporary.
We should put everything on an income tax. Taxes should reflect what people can afford. I use that word loosely here, but it’s better than taxing people on fixed assets that have no linkage to income.
— Larry Craig, Wilmette
Market value rationale?
I read with great interest in Sunday’s paper about the inept Cook County assessor’s office. One thing the article misses is the lack of transparency in how the assessor’s office determines market value. I wonder what the assessor’s office is hiding?
— Dan Malone, Willow Springs
Shifting burden to Illinois
David Greising’s column “Merging teachers’ pension funds may help increase CPS revenues” (Aug. 2) is poorly disguised support for a plan to offload responsibility for financial mismanagement of Chicago Public Schools pensions to the rest of Illinois. Next fiscal year, CPS will be facing $400 million in budget shortfalls primarily due to the expiration of COVID-19 relief funding and salary increases from the new Chicago Teachers Union contract. It is looking for a way out.
Enter John Cullerton to the rescue, with an idea to merge CPS pensions with Illinois state teachers pensions. In the transfer, Illinois citizens, who have no input or control over CPS decisions, pick up the $175 million contribution for nonteaching staff pensions, $13 billion in unfunded pension liabilities (about $1,000 per citizen) and increased pension contributions for the new CTU contract. This is a raw deal for us, but we’re used to it by now.
— Daniel Mackin, Northbrook
Fighting water rate hike
Where would we be without the Citizens Utility Board, AARP and a handful of state representatives (mine not included) who are fighting against corporate greed when it comes to providing a true necessity, water?
We love our community in Lake County but have had nothing but trouble from our water supplier Aqua. Who knew that last summer’s fiasco was just the beginning? Now Aqua wants a huge increase when it can’t provide quality water regularly. Where are our government representatives from local villages all the way to our state representatives and senators? We are talking about water.
Thank you to those who do fight for us. Shame on those who should but don’t.
— Susan Bauer, Hawthorn Woods
Innovate for social good
I couldn’t help but contrast the radio news lineup one recent morning: an energetic piece on the joys of Olympic athletes winning and competing in Paris, a world-class city, followed by a report on the grave conditions of refugees in Sudan, Gaza and elsewhere where pleas for help go unattended.
In the Olympics piece, the segment featured some athletes complaining of the bland food being served to the 40,000 people at the Olympic Village, prompting officials to ship in tons of eggs and meat. These non-plant-based foods disrupted the initial desire to keep the Olympics environmentally sensitive; however, they were brought in to serve high-performing athletes, a reporter noted.
Meanwhile, people around the world in refugee camps suffer from little to no food, water or basic hygiene necessities needed to simply exist and thrive. Physicians interviewed for that report sounded exhausted and explained in detail how dire conditions are.
The stark contrast of these reports was jarring and caused me to reflect on this idea: Why not consider something like a worldwide Olympics of Care?
The iconic Olympic five-ring logo could be repurposed to represent a lifesaving “sports” competition. Team innovations from all the continents could be highlighted to showcase how good nutrition and health can be achieved by many in this fragile world. Innovations could include the special needs of children, women, the elderly and those with disabilities, not to mention animals and the environment.
This approach would rely on the competitive nature of humans for social good and be free of political motivations.
I submit that those innovations awarded medals would be lasting and surely be worth more than their weight in gold, silver and bronze.
— Linda Bosy, Orland Park
Remaking Chicago’s drive
I’ve resided on DuSable Lake Shore Drive for more than 40 years, used the drive for more than 50 years and spent a great deal of time the last 10 years evaluating it perched from my home office overlooking Belmont Harbor. My career as a designer and curator of design, architecture, urban planning and sustainability makes me uniquely qualified to offer the following observations.
One of the proposals for the drive focuses on climate goals, which I agree with. That’s a yes for mass transit improvement.
Right now, the drive works remarkably well except at rush hour, when there seems to be no easy remedy to improve traffic flow via the entry and exit lanes.
A dedicated bus lane is a yes, which could accommodate more buses. Adding lanes is a yes if we want to increase traffic volume, but the tradeoff is contradictory to the concerns of many. Conversely, during road construction, we know what just taking a lane away does.
There are many reasons not to consider the boulevard concept, but let’s just say it is not climate-friendly. Daniel Burnham would not have recommended a light rail system on the lakefront, and nor would residents. As is, the traffic noise at best can resemble the soothing sound of the sea, whereas a rail system is quite a different pollutant.
What I’ve seen in the current proposals supports the suggestion that we should start all over to come up with a better proposal for our iconic and vital drive. Post-haste, please.
— Ron Kovach, Chicago
What about light rail?
If planners of North DuSable Lake Shore Drive really want to make a difference on carbon emissions and pollution, light rail is a good option. Light rail doesn’t emit exhaust, soot and diesel fumes into the air.
Chicago in the past had an option to cut back on bus exhaust with then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s proposal for a central district circulator system that would have used light rail and taken some buses of the streets.
Now is the time to consider light rail like other cities have.
— Thomas Hussey, Evanston
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