Chicago City Wire

Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker needs to speak up about mounting criticism leveled against Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios in the wake of a Chicago Tribune report, the Illinois Republican Party said in a press release recently.

Pritzker has faced his own share of criticism on property taxes after a Chicago Sun-Times report revealed that he received more than $230,000 in reductions on his property tax bill for his main residence and the neighboring mansion he owns.

The Tribune said the breaks are in line with countywide trends in which wealthier homeowners often appeal their property assessments and receive reductions on their bills 80 percent of the time. Berrios, who is also the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, has received more than $2.5 million in political contributions from property tax attorneys and associated businesses, the paper reported. That figure includes contributions from Pritzker’s property tax attorney.

Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios | By Patrick Hickey - e-mail, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25721424

“Does Pritzker think it is appropriate for assessors to accept campaign contributions from tax appeals attorneys?” GOP spokesperson Steven Yaffe asked in the party’s release. “Does he have any reaction to the Tribune story detailing how the wealthy, like himself, continue to get huge property tax breaks at the expense of the poor? It’s time for Pritzker to break his silence.”