It Ain't All Big Hair and Cadillacs

BREAKING NEWS

Monday, January 29, 2007, President of the Senate, Emil Jones, announced the Senate's intention of "fast tracking" the 7% bill in the opening days of the Legislature, passing it with a majority and sending it over to the House. The content of the bill is important. It raises the "cap on the cap" from $20,000 to $60,000 and benefits service men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the bill that the Senate passed last spring. This is also the bill that Speaker of the House, Mike Madigan buried in the Rules Committee.

Let's see if Speaker Madigan can be persuaded by our Representatives (call them), Governor Blagojevich and hopefully Mayor Daley, to pass this bill in time for it to be reflected on our 2 nd installment property tax bills. As Representative John Fritchey said recently, "The doomsday property tax clock is ticking. There is no need to wait until the 11th hour to pass this bill."

Both Houses gave us this relief back in 2004. Now it would appear that they are trying to take it away from us! Don't let that happen. Keep making those phone calls….

In a related move, Speaker Madigan issued his own press release with a letter to Assessor Houlihan asking for the NAMES, ADDRESSES, VALUE, AND PIN numbers for all of the taxpayers/homeowners in the entire county of Cook that received the maximum benefit from the 7%. He wants this information, according to him, to determine whether or not the 7% should be passed again.

A couple of questions come to mind:

1. Why does he need your name, your neighbors name…what is he going to do with these names? Who is going to see this "database"?

2. Why did he wait so long to ask for this information? He has known about this bill for almost a year now.

3. And the kicker is, he doesn't want to pay for this Freedom of Information Request because of WHO HE IS…an elected official that is asking for a freebie from our county government that is already swimming in debt. Go figure.

We will keep you informed as this bill moves through the Legislature which starts February 6, 2007.

Look for our calls to action