RACE: Cook County Assessor

About the Candidate

Name: Nico Tsatsoulis
DOB:
Occupation: 
Political Experience:
Website: nicotheassessor.com
Twitter: @NicoTheAssessor

Candidate Statement

Hi, I’m Nico Tsatsoulis and I’m running for Cook County Assessor. 

Unlike my opponent, I’m not a professional politician. 

Our property taxes are going up like there is no tomorrow and the tax levy is at $16 billion.  This is unsustainable. 

The present assessor, in his desperate effort to get re-elected, is pandering that he is making "the rich downtown developers pay their fair share." What he is doing is rearranging the tax burden from the poor and the middle class back to the poor and the middle class. If taxes are not lowered, but commercial properties are just taxed more, then we the people are paying again these taxes through more expensive goods and services. Instead of recycling taxes, the assessor should be advocating for lower taxes. With his irresponsible policies, soon our tax base will be destroyed. 

In addition, his assessments are erratic, inconsistent, unreasonable and unjust. 

The assessor is pandering that he is taking care of the poor, but in reality, he is giving preferential treatment to select big companies. McDonald's headquarters in Chicago sold for $400 million, but the assessor valued the building at $200 million. 

Let's make this election a referendum to limit yearly tax assessment increases to 2% and limit the tax to 1% of the value of our property. These are common sense rules. Let us vote out of office the professional profligate politicians who are not looking out for our best interests. On November 8 vote smart, vote libertarian. Vote for one of our own, not for the corrupt professionals with the big money. I am Nico Tsatsoulis and I am running for Cook County Assessor.

Candidate Q&A

Why are you running?

I am running because property taxes in Cook County keep increasing, to the extent that a vast majority of people have a hard time keeping up and businesses are thinking of moving and some have already done so.  This trend endangers our tax base and without a healthy tax base, there is no prosperous future for any of us.  The biggest shortcoming of the present assessor is his lack of perspective and vision, failing to recognize that the problem is not the redistribution of the tax burden but the magnitude of the tax levy.  Failure to identify the nature of the problem guarantees the inability to address and propose appropriate solutions.

The levy in Cook County is at $16 billion and growing.    It is unsustainable and threatens the health of the tax base.  The budgets have to become leaner.  The levy keeps increasing and most peoples' property taxes have increased, with some assessments going up by over 400% in one year!  The Chicago City council voted for a 5% increase in the levy last year and another 2.5% increase this year.  There is no end in sight.  My opponent, Fritz Kaegi not only refuses to accept the necessity of leaner budgets but he fails in the basic function of his office which is to come up with "fair" assessments.  Assessments coming out of the assessor's office are erratic, inconsistent, errant, unjust and unjustified.  Uncertainty about future tax liabilities creates anxiety for homeowners and dampens the appetite of investors.

What does this office do well, and what needs fixing?

The present assessor recycles taxes from residential to commercial property owners as a calculated bet to pander to the larger number of homeowners and secure reelection.  What he refuses to acknowledge is that this hurts mostly the poor and middle class.   Higher commercial rates result in higher costs for goods and services.  The poor and middle class spend by definition a higher proportion of their income buying these goods and services that now cost more because of the increased taxes on commercial properties.  But the assessor can pander that he alleviated their tax liability.

Also, higher taxes, increase the costs of property ownership and drive minority and poorer communities out of the property market.  Their only option is to become perpetual renters.  Illinois has the second highest effective property tax rate in the nation at 2.3% after New Jersey.  Cook County has the highest effective commercial property tax rates in the nation at 5.9% after Detroit.  High effective property tax rates combined with uncertainty about future tax liabilities reduce the confidence of homeowners and investors and harm development prospects.  Both residential and commercial property owners require lower property taxes.  The assessor wants us to think that this is a zero-sum game with two competing groups.  However, taxes trickle down to the poor and the middle class regardless. 

What is the most pressing issue facing your constituents and how do you plan on addressing it?

The assessments coming out of the assessor's office are erratic, unjust, and unpredictable.  I am advocating for the adoption of an objective method to calculate assessments.  We should be using the acquisition value of the property and then capping annual assessment increases to 2% a year.   Also, the value of the tax liability should not exceed 1% of the value of the property.  When the property is sold, the sale price becomes the new base.  Effectively, I am advocating for a California-Proposition-13 type of legislation.  We need to take the subjectivity out of the assessment process.  If you think of it, it is pretty crazy that we expect a government body to successfully replicate market prices.  Because this is what they are trying to do at the assessor's office today and they are failing miserably at that.

An additional benefit of the acquisition value-based assessment method is that it results in reduced segregation.  It assists lower-income, long-time residents of rising-value neighborhoods to remain in their communities as opposed to being forced out due to their inability to afford rising property taxes.  This leads to more integrated communities and reduces the need for politically connected developers to obtain taxpayer-funded subsidies to provide affordable housing.  Professional politicians do not like this because it reduces their power to appropriate money to donor developers.

Also, taxpayers will be needing less of the services of property tax attorneys.  Presently some taxpayers are forced to use lawyers and fall victim to "institutionalized corruption".   "Institutionalized corruption" refers to the de facto scheme between the assessor and the property tax lawyers to extract economic rent from property owners.  Property tax appeals lawyers demand a fraction of the so-called "savings" achieved upon appeal.  These "savings" is the difference between the artificially inflated original assessment by the Cook County Assessor and the eventual assessment after the appeal. The more outrageous the original assessment, the higher the fees the lawyers make, since the vast majority charges a fee ranging from 25% to 35% of the "savings".  This racketeering scheme seems to be accepted practice in Cook County since many legislators are property tax appeals lawyers.  The transfer of wealth from property owners to property tax appeals lawyers has increased dramatically under Fritz Kaegi.  He has proven to be the biggest boon for property tax lawyers ever. Taxpayers have to add a significant additional indirect component to their tax liability which albeit does not end up in the public coffers.  With an objective assessment process, this scheme will be eliminated.

What specific steps would you take to ensure your office is accessible and responsive to your constituents?

I am not a professional politician.  I am one of the people, reacting to the unresponsiveness of professional politicians that often have agendas that do not necessarily align with our interests. The goal of my campaign is to amplify the demand for objective assessments and a reasonable level of overall property taxation in Cook County.  The assessor should be an advocate for the people and the financial soundness of our county.  The Cook County assessor is a political position (the only assessor that is not required to be licensed as such) and in addition to the technocratic function, there is an equally important policy component.  My opponent, Fritz Kaegi is absent in that role.  He is not advocating for caps or leaner budgets but I am.  This is a fundamental difference in perspective between my opponent and myself.  My aim is to represent the people.  He represents the bureaucracy.  My office will de facto be accessible and responsive to the people.