Senior tax exemption

[gizmodog]

The senior exemptions are a wonderful thing as is the senior freeze.  But, as much as I hate doing it, let me quote Ronnie Reagan with regard to the renewal of both benefits, "Trust but verify!"  There's an elected official in another town that lives with her mother (the homeowner) who gets the senior freeze every year, despite her daughter's income exceeding the eligibility standards.
In this tough economy families are doubling up, but Berwyn, like all local governments has to be sure it collects every dime it can while making sure eligible residents take advantage of all benefits available to them.

[watcher]

The senior exemptions are a wonderful thing as is the senior freeze.  But, as much as I hate doing it, let me quote Ronnie Reagan with regard to the renewal of both benefits, "Trust but verify!"  There's an elected official in another town that lives with her mother (the homeowner) who gets the senior freeze every year, despite her daughter's income exceeding the eligibility standards.
In this tough economy families are doubling up, but Berwyn, like all local governments has to be sure it collects every dime it can while making sure eligible residents take advantage of all benefits available to them.

So what verification have ANY of the county entities done EVERY year to make the "system" trustworthy? It's not like the county doesn't have boots on the ground... errr, butts behind the desks. Collecting every dime? Okay, but considering that TIFs take dimes away from things like education and spread the costs across a monumentally FUBAR assessment? Because actually FIXING the problems would require actual work?  How long do you think it will take the assessments to reflect the 30% drop in values?  How will taxing bodies compensate when the values are dropped?

The truth is that nobody has the balls to fix what's wrong so they keep coming up with these band-aids that make the CUSTOMER jump through hoops while they keep spending and "enhancing" their revenue streams.

You can quote Reagan all you want, I'll quote my dad.  "You NEED $20 more? What did you do with the LAST $20 I gave you?"

[gizmodog]

One more thing; did anyone notice that the notice on the Assessor's Office website proclaims "Berrios mails senior exemption applications".  Politics, plain and simple.

[Roger]

The form my mom received requires a notary.

[Ted]

  My mom has not received anything yet.  Hopefully, it will come today in the mail.

[Terri]

A little more on this.

###
Bad tax-break bill punishes seniors.
by Phil Kadner
http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/3756582-522/bad-tax-break-bill-punishes-seniors.html

This is a column about a stupid state law inspired by petty politics.

Because of the law, 300,000 booklets were mailed this week to the homes of Cook County senior citizens who qualify for a property tax break.

If they don't fill out a form in those booklets and return it to the Cook County assessor's office, they are going to have to pay hundreds of dollars more in property tax this year than they should.

In the past, once a senior citizen qualified for the tax break and was approved, it was automatically renewed unless he died or sold his home. But last year, the Illinois Legislature passed a law forcing seniors to reapply for the exemption each year.

Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios estimates that it's costing his office $250,000 to print and mail the booklets.

Yet, every elected official knows that thousands of seniors will toss the booklets out, lose them or fail to receive them.

Berrios said his office is going to spend even more money doing outreach — sending employees out to seniors groups to explain the need to file the forms and how to access them online if they're not received in the mail.

With Cook County already laying off employees due to budget problems, Berrios believes the law is a waste of money and wants it repealed.

I have talked to several elected officials in Cook County and can't find one who thinks this law is a good idea. So how did this happen?

I have heard several explanations, and all of them amount to really bad government.

First, Kelly Burke, an Evergreen Park resident, successfully ran for state representative last year in the 36th District.

House Speaker and state Democratic Party chief Michael Madigan also ran a candidate for that office. His people ran a smear campaign against Burke, and one of the things they discovered is that her home received a senior citizen exemption when she wasn't a senior.

Burke said she was unaware she was getting the tax break (the previous homeowner had been a senior) and paid the taxes she owed.

But Madigan wanted to make a big issue out of it and so the Legislature passed a law that forced every senior citizen in Cook County to reapply for the exemption every year.

At the same time, Madigan was in a political spitting match with then-Cook County Assessor James Houlihan over extending a 7 percent cap on property assessments.

Madigan finally came around to a partial compromise but wanted to stick it to Houlihan and so forced seniors to file for the exemption each year.

Houlihan, who did not seek re-election, had ended the practice of forcing seniors to reapply for the tax break.

Finally, I'm told that some legislators from DuPage County and downstate said seniors in their counties had to file annually for the tax break, so Cook County seniors should suffer as well. They refused to support the 7 percent solution unless it included the requirement that seniors reapply.

There appears to be no evidence that large numbers of homeowners in Cook County who don't deserve the tax break are getting it.

Berrios said that with electronic death notices and deed transfers available, the county should be able to update its list of qualified seniors without forcing them to reapply.

By the way, seniors who fail to apply can eventually file for a property tax correction, but that will cost more government employee time and money.

Berrios points out another problem.

The booklets he sent out include forms for the senior property tax freeze, which has income limits, as well as the senior property tax exemption, which does not.

"Every senior (born in 1945 or before) is entitled to the exemption regardless of income and should file the form," Berrios said.

He has learned that some seniors are tossing all the information out, thinking that their income excludes them from the exemption.

Since this is really the Burke Law, I asked the new state representative if she would take the lead in repealing it. She balked, saying such a bill already may have been proposed, and she doesn't have enough information to know if the law is really needed.

I would urge every senior in Cook County to call their state legislators and complain.

But I also want to warn them not to toss the forms from the assessor in the garbage. They should be arriving shortly.

If you don't get one by the end of the month, go online, call up the Cook County assessor's Web site and fill the form out.

If you're not computer savvy or don't have a computer, go to your local library and ask for help.

We're used to bad government in Illinois. But even by our standards, this is idiotic.

[Ted]

  My mom still has not received anything in the mail.  I guess I have to go down to the assessor's office and find out what's going on.

[Homebody]

I checked with a Senior Citizen who received the letter from Assessor Berrios. She was ready to throw it out. I took a look at the mailing. It is very confusing. This senior has income making her ineligible for the Senior Tax Freeze. However, the way the letter is composed, it makes it appear that you have to be below the income cut off for both the tax break and the senior freeze. Very bad letter format. I understand why seniors are pitching them out. Marge

[n01_important]

It may reduce fraud but the fraud is caused by their ineptitude.

So they would rather have false-positives to save on the false-negatives... it's a win-win for them, less false-negz, ka-ching... more false-positives, ka-ching ka-ching.

Wow, our local  government has reached a new low.  Taking money from grandma's piggy bank.