Andrea Raila and Mr. Anthony Travis were guests on the Chicago Communicator News Media “On Point”Remote TV broadcast on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021 at 6:00pm. She was an extodinary speaker, who captivated the audience with information about the Illinois property tax system. The examples that she and Anthony gave had our participants upset enough to agree to organize and form a coalition to address the Illinois property tax disparities. The group will convene its first meeting within the next week. If you are interested in participating in this initiative, call CCNM at 773-669-8736, if you are a home owner in Illinois and you live in a poor, economically dispress community, join the fight to restruct the Illinois property tax system. The broadcast on Andrea A. Raila & Anthony Travis on Taxation will be available at www.ccnewsmedia.org/
Andrea Raila, has a BA and is a Senior Tax Analyst at Raila & Associations, P.C. Founder/CEO of TRAEN, Inc., a Training, Research, Advocacy & Education Network. Raila was a former Deputy Member for the Cook County Board of Tax Review and a Tax Advocate with the Chicago’s Comptroller’s Office. Ms. Raila was commissioned with the comptroller on a statewide study, “The Illinois Property Tax System: Taxation Without Representation” whose poor assessment equity findings closely match studies 20-30 years later. She has served on property tax taskforce committees, initiated statewide tax laws to improve special service areas, omitted and erroneous assessment and foreclosure statutes. She has authored articles and research studies, has a 39-year combined career in both public and private sectors as a tax negotiator, lecturer, and expert resource for public officials, academia, and media. Ms. Raila was the first woman to run for the Cook County Assessor in Illinois in 2009 and 2018 in 85 years.
Zoom Session Description
Raila discussed the following issues:
1) No one could have predicted that all of the apprehensions about the 2020 recession would almost be 100% wrong as just the opposite occurred. Along with the lowest interest rates ever, home values increased along with the stock market. Businesses took uneven tolls but some transformed into on-line services.
2) How did the Cook County Assessor respond? With 10% COVID tax breaks to 96% of the homes in Cook County Seem fair?
** The Assessor gave a 10% reduction on a $27 million Winnetka home that’s $67,000 tax break off their July 2021 tax bill
** The Assessor gave a 10% reduction on a $14 Million Chicago home that’s $25,000 tax break off their July 2021 tax bill
*** The Assessor gave a 10% reduction on a $200,000 south suburban home that’s a $500 tax break off their July 2021 tax bill
3) Covid tax breaks equally spread across all homes including multi-million mansions were based on unemployment rates and how they would affect the housing market values. But these tax breaks reduced the wealthiest homeowners’ property taxes when they do not suffer from unemployment $25 million in property tax dollar breaks to the top 1% The Covid tax breaks should have been only given to our most vulnerable homeowners.
4) The Senior Freeze is a tax break for those who are 65 and upwards and who make $65,000 It was designed to give property tax breaks to Cook County’s most vulnerable senior homeowners. Did you know it’s also given to homeowners with $3 million dollar homes? Reducing that home from a property tax bill of $70,000 to $55,000 giving the homeowner a $15,000 tax break off their July 2021 tax bill.