-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Aon Center, the 83-story office tower overlooking Millennium Park, sold for $712 million in 2015. It's worth half that, $356.4 million, according to the assessor. That same year, a retail building on North Michigan Avenue, including the home of a Nike flagship store, traded for $295 million. The assessor values the properties at $56.8 million. Willis Tower fetched $1.05 billion in 2015, a record for Chicago. But the assessor says it's worth just $580 million.
The pattern holds for a sampling of 50 of Cook County's most expensive buildings. A Crain's analysis found that the assessor valued every single property well below what it sold for within the past five years. By the assessor's estimates, the average building was worth about 46 percent of its sale price, according to the analysis.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Illinois constitution (Article IX-Section 4) states that the assessments of the highest class can not be more than 2 1/2 times that of the lowest class. If you look at the sales price vs the assessed price many are around the 2 1/2 times ratio. Seems like the commercial buildings are lowered to be the equivalent of residential tax rates which would be the lowest class.thus lower taxes. Since commercial zoning can not be changed to residential zoning might as well lower the assessed value to accommodate the lower tax rate. Here in the city Rockford all properties are taxed… Read more »