The head of the Cook County wastewater treatment board announced Monday she hopes to oust Assessor Fritz Kaegi, pledging to bring stability to the property tax assessment office.
Kari Steele, the president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, launched her Democratic primary challenge to the county assessor in a video released Monday, arguing that Kaegi has “been long on promises but short on results.”
“He promised he would make property taxes fair for working people, he promised to help our seniors, he promised to be a competent manager,” Steele says in a nearly two-minute announcement video.
“But a [Chicago] Sun-Times investigation revealed that he badly mismanaged the senior citizen tax rates program, and homeowners got hurt. And I don’t need to tell you that working families still pay more than their fair share.”
As assessor, Steele says she won’t just “talk about it — I’ll be about it” when it comes to making changes to the office and providing stability to businesses “so they can plan ahead with a strong understanding of what it will cost to run their business” without forcing working families to “pick up the slack.”
The water reclamation district treats wastewater and handles storm-water management agency for Chicago and 128 suburban communities throughout Cook County.
Kaegi’s office admitted to the Sun-Times Watchdogs in June that it’s made numerous errors in calculating the property tax savings under the senior freeze program, mistakes the office blamed on issues with a mainframe computer often undervaluing properties.
In response to that investigation, Kaegi’s office announced earlier this month it would slash some of the property tax breaks the Sun-Times spotlighted.
In a statement, Kaegi said he’s “proud of our work transforming the old, broken property tax system into one based on fairness, transparency, and ethics.
Source & full article: https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2021/9/20/22684281/kari-steele-fritz-kaegi-cook-county-assessor-water-reclamation-district-democratic-primary