Please consider Feds Probe Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, First Lady For Property Tax Appeals On Gold Coast Mansion.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, his wife and his brother-in-law are under federal criminal investigation for a dubious residential property tax appeal that dogged him during his gubernatorial campaign last year, WBEZ has learned.
A law-enforcement source familiar with the investigation confirmed to WBEZ that the probe, which has not been revealed publicly until now, began last October and remains active.
A Cook County inspector general’s report, first published by the Chicago Sun-Times, later found MK Pritzker directed workers to remove all toilets from the mansion in order to have it declared “uninhabitable,” which gave the Pritzkers a huge property tax break. The report also found that Lovely and the governor’s brother-in-law, Thomas J. Muenster, made “false representations” on tax appeal documents.
No Other State Can Boast This
Four of of the last seven is incorrect. It came from an article by that name in 2013.
Here is the correct scorecard. Details from Elected Officials Behind Bars for Behaving Badly.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich
14 years behind bars for 17 counts of corruption charges, including trying to auction off President Barack Obama’s Senate seat in exchange for campaign cash.
Illinois Gov. George Ryan text: Sentence: 6.5 years
In 2006 Ryan was convicted on 22 counts of fraud, racketeering, bribery, extortion and money laundering for, among other things, accepting bribes in exchange for state licenses. He was also charged with lying to investigators and accepting gifts in return for actions once he took office.
Illinois Gov. Dan Walker text: Sentence: 7 years
Dan Walker served as Illinois governor between 1973 and 1977, and unlike his fellow Illinois governors-turned-convicts, Walker served time for crimes he committed after leaving the governor’s mansion.
In 1987, Walker was convicted of bank fraud and corruption after pleading guilty in a savings-and-loan fraud case for crimes he committed as a businessman after leaving public office.
Walker was sentenced to seven years in federal prison and served 18 months. In January 2001, President Bill Clinton denied his request for a pardon.
Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner text: Sentence: 3 years
Otto Kerner served two terms as governor of Illinois from 1960 to 1968 and later became a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
After leaving office, Kerner was indicted in 1971 on bribery charges after a discovery that he received steep discounts on race track stock in exchange for political favors. Two years later he was convicted of bribery, conspiracy, tax evasion and perjury, the first sitting appellate judge in history to be convicted of felony charges, according the Chicago Tribune.
While he was sentenced to three years in federal prison, Kerner only served for seven months before he was released on parole. The former governor died of lung cancer a year after his release and in the midst of seeking a presidential pardon to clear his name.
Will JB Pritzker be number five?
He should, but I doubt it.
Rigging Elections
No state is more skilled than Illinois at rigging elections.
Dead voters handed Kennedy the state of Illinois. It is rumored that dead people in Chicago no longer vote as much as they used to.
Thus, other means are necessary.
Gerrymandering at its Finest
Please consider the Illinois’s 4th Congressional District.
Earmuffs
The 4th Congressional District of Illinois includes part of Cook County, and has been represented by Democrat Luis Gutiérrez since January 1993. It was featured by The Economist as one of the most strangely drawn and gerrymandered congressional districts in the country and has been nicknamed “earmuffs” due to its shape. It was created to pack two majority Hispanic parts of Chicago into one district, thereby creating a majority Hispanic district.
This district covers two strips running east-west across the city of Chicago, Illinois, on the west side continuing into smaller portions of some suburban areas in Cook County, surrounding Illinois’ 7th congressional district. The northern portion is largely Puerto Rican, while the southern portion is heavily Mexican-American. The two sections are on opposite sides of the city and are only connected by a piece of Interstate 294 to the west; the highway is in the district while the surrounding areas are not. It is the smallest congressional district in area outside of New York City and San Francisco.
I challenge anyone to come up with anything that looks worse than that.
And recall that former Governor Rod Blagojevich is in prison for attempting to sell a US Senate seat to the highest bidder. That’s among 14 other charges.
Corruption in Illinois has no bounds.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Massachusetts, with Democrat Super-Majorities certainly has its share of corruption too.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2011/04/15/this-photo-of-mass-speakers-speaks-volumes/
Current speaker Deleo is “Co-Conspirator”
Look for 16 year-olds voting, illegal immigrants voting locally, drivers licenses, ‘free’ state college, same day voter registration, taking Uber/Lyft to support Taxi’s, Airbnb taxes, and even capital gains proposal from 5% to 9%.
“Voters get the government they deserve”, and “capital flees, to where it is loved”. I see many wealthy friends exiting the Commonwealth to better economic climates in Florida.
Lived in S.E. Mass for years. Would also like to recommend RI for well earned honors.
Bunch of Hillary wannabes.
When it comes to gerrymandering, Maryland wins the prize. The dems have gerrymandered 7 of 8 seats in a state with a republican governor.
Ah yes, #2 is for the black congressbeing, #4 must be for the hispanic congressbeing, but #3? That must be for the blind one-legged transsexual candidate… I don’t know.
“No other state comes close to Illinois corruption.”
You are probably right Mish, but we’re trying to make up ground here in Texas. Our property tax system has become a comical joke. As money circulates around Austin, they are pointing fingers all over the place in an attempt to fix school finance and property taxes. There are no easy solutions because both systems are broken, corrupted by big money and lobbyists.
Texas’ two-tiered property tax system continues to shift the burden of taxes onto homeowners because they are the easiest targets. The local CAD’s (central appraisal districts) are picking homeowners off like fish in a barrel with record high property tax bills.
You can protest as a homeowner, but it won’t do you much good, because the CAD has sales data on homes, but not most commercial properties. This creates an unlevel playing field where those wealthy and commercial property owners can sue the CAD in district court and get their assessments halved, or at least significantly reduced with an “equity” appeal that hilariously enough does NOT involve market value.
Homeowners can’t use the equity appeal scam because it is not economically feasible, and market value is the CAD’s standard for homes.
The chief appraisers overseeing this transfer of wealth know the system rigged, but many are happy to keep collecting their six-figure paychecks every year as they railroad homeowners with higher tax bills. Just following their orders from the state comptroller. LOL!
Good for him. Taxation is theft and he found away to keep his money. Now if only he believed that about everyone else’s money….
Property taxes are the only, or at least one of the the very, very few, taxes which aren’t, strictly speaking, straight up, trivially indisputably, theft.
If you want government’s help protecting your claim to a plot of land, somebody needs to pay them to provide that help. If that someone is anyone other than you, what is going on is so obviously theft, that even a five year old of reasonable intelligence, can’t help but recognizing it for what it is. If, OTOH, it is you, whether it is theft or not, is much less clear cut.
If you remove the toilets to reduce taxes, then reinstall them to live in the house or rent it, it is fraud.
Evade taxes or break any law at your own risk.
However, when you peel all the window dressing away, government is an extortion racket. Government’s main reason to exist is to protect you from other governments. This includes organized crime that functions identically to “legitimate” government. They will also help to protect you and yours from theft and injury, as Stuki mentioned. Your government will tell you that the other guys are worse. Until about 2008, I pretty much agreed with that. Since then I have my doubts
2banana’s Rule.
Conservatives are more than happy to live under the same laws and taxes they want for everyone else.
Progressives/Liberals expect to exempted from the same laws and taxes they want for everyone else.
For more examples – see all the “exemptions” for obamacare – especially for the unions and those in the federal workforce.
There is corruption in Illinois, as surely as the sun shines, but when it comes to corrupt governors, Tennessee had the worst I’ve ever seen, so corrupt that the Democratic controlled Congress swore in the Republican-elect Governor two weeks early to get the outgoing Democrat out of office at the earliest possible moment. That’s something hard to imagine, but true. And, in a musical tribute to corrupt governors, here’s a hit from early 1979:
12 of Illinois most corrupt politicians:
https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/The-12-Most-Corrupt-Public-Officials-in-Illinois-History-The-Complete-List-138128988.html
And as bad as this guy was , he didn’t even make the list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Bauler
Famous quote: “Chicago ain’t ready for reform”.
When you have a racket whereby what you pay in taxes, depends on what some privileged nothing arbitrarily “deems,” “determines,” “finds,” “assesses” and “declares,” this is what you’ll always get.
As much as I despise Illinois politicians, is taking out toilets from your home to reduce taxes a real crime. It seems ridiculous to have a federal investigation into this. How come this isn’t being investigated locally it has nothing to do with the federal govt?
Duh, you sure don’t know Illinois. They do not investigate their own; it’s always the feds who have to catch IL crooks.
If you remove the toilets to reduce taxes, then reinstall them to live it the house or rent it, it is fraud. His tax bill may have gone down by tens of thousands. This is an upscale place.
“We don’t pay taxes, only little people pay taxes”. Leona Helmsley, April 17, 2005
In the immortal words of Leona Helmsley…,
“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”
Illinois certainly has its share of corrupt politicians. I hate the Pritzker family, for many reasons, anyway so I hope they get thrown in the clink if they are guilty.