Earlier this year, the Cook County Assessor’s Office decided that the home I’ve owned for 30 years should be assessed at a value more than 100% greater than it was just a year ago, and significantly more than I could reasonably expect to sell it for. And today Mayor Lightfoot announced a planned property tax increase, which she had the audacity to compare to the price of Italian beef sandwiches for a family of four.
So what is my family getting, instead of beef sandwiches? Tax money supporting an unstable school system that continues to prove itself incapable of meeting even the basic needs of its ever-declining number of students? Fear that when my nearly adult children take the CTA to visit friends, they may not safely make it home? A seemingly oxymoronic commitment to simultaneously promote NASCAR races while cracking down on drag races across our city’s streets?
