When liberals attack one of their own, it's clear something is amiss, the Illinois Republican Party suggested in a press release recently.
The GOP quoted an opinion piece by the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Brown criticizing J.B. Pritzker’s tax breaks on a supposedly uninhabitable mansion he bought next door to his home.
“[O]ne of the wealthiest people in America was allowed to receive a real estate tax break on an extremely valuable home on one of this city’s most exclusive streets on the basis that he ran the property into the ground,” Brown wrote. “That makes no sense. The result is that Pritzker, now a Democratic candidate for governor, is not paying his fair share of taxes for this property. It may be entirely legal, as both the Pritzker campaign and the Cook County Assessor’s office insist. But it shouldn’t be.”
Pritzker bought the mansion next to his main residence in 2007, then appealed his tax bill in 2015 on the grounds that the property was uninhabitable. His bill was slashed and he even got a refund on bills paid from 2012 to 2014. He is set to receive the same break on his 2016 taxes.
“This is not about the commonplace practice of appealing property taxes on someone’s principal place of residence,” Brown wrote. “This is about a very unique situation of a homeowner buying an expensive property next door and being rewarded for being a lousy owner.”
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