Pat Quinn to Bring Take Charge Chicago Petition Drive to City Hall
Record-Breaking Property Tax Hike “Underlines the Need for Mayoral Term Limits and a Full-Time Consumer Advocate for Taxpayers”
CHICAGO, IL – Pat Quinn will bring the Take Charge Chicago petition drive to City Hall just as beleaguered Chicago homeowners begin receiving their property tax bills with a record-shattering $543 million increase.
The Take Charge Chicago referendums would term limit Chicago’s Mayor and establish an elected Consumer Advocate for taxpayers. The Take Charge Chicago referendums would be the first binding referendums in memory once 100,000 signatures are collected.
“Ben Franklin once said death and taxes were inevitable, but he never said it’s inevitable to be taxed to death,” Quinn said. “This tax hike on the backs of everyday people in Chicago underlines the need for mayoral term limits and a full-time Consumer Advocate for taxpayers.”
The current Mayor announced the historic property tax hike just after his reelection. His $543 million increase easily eclipsed the previous record increase – $88 million – imposed by the previous Mayor just after he was reelected to his 6th term.
Chicago is the only city among the nation’s ten largest cities without mayoral term limits. New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Houston all have term limits on their mayor.
Chicagoans already pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation, on top of artificial fees such as red-light cameras and the brand-new garbage collection fee which appeared on recent water bills.
An elected Consumer Advocate will stand up for taxpayers and will fight for fairness and equality in the tax code.
Former Illinois Governor Quinn also served as Commissioner of the Cook County Board of (Tax) Appeals (1982-86), the nation’s largest property tax appeal agency.
WHEN: Wednesday, July 6, 2016, 1:30 pm
WHERE: Near the Cook County Treasurer’s Office
121 N. LaSalle St., Chicago
(Clark St. Side, First Floor)
