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Copyright 1999 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc. November 9, 1999 LENGTH: 579 words BYLINE: Raymond R. Coffey Commissioners Joseph Berrios, Robert Shaw and Maureen Murphy of the Cook County Board of (Tax) Review do not have to run for re-election until 2002. So why are tax appeal lawyers raining thousands of dollars in campaign contributions on them, in season and out? And is it appropriate for the commissioners to take money from lawyers who annually bring tens of thousands of property tax cases to the board? For the first six months of this non-election year, veteran commissioner Joseph Berrios reported $65,420 in "individual contributions," most of it from tax lawyers. For the same period, Shaw, a former alderman in Chicago's 9th Ward and now in his first term on the board, reported $31,700 ? again, much of it from tax lawyers. Murphy, a former state representative and newcomer to the board, of which she holds the rotating chairmanship, reported $35,250 in contributions for the first six months of this year. The names of lawyers and/or their law firms prominent in tax law and listed as contributors are pretty much the same on all three disclosure reports; Pollack & Weiss, Joseph G. Kusper, Richard Shapiro & Associates, Sarnoff & Baccash, Arnold Siegel, Amari & Locallo, Craig Burman, Flanigan, Bilton, Brannigan, Larkin & Larkin, Schiller, Klein & McElroy, Worsek & Vishon and more. Berrios and Shaw are Democrats on what was until last year a two-member, all-Chicago board. Murphy is the first Republican and suburbanite (Evergreen Park) on the new three-member panel. But Board contributors in some instances put partisanship aside to cover all the bases. Richard Phelan, former Cook County Board president, and Tom Tully, former assessor, are longtime Democrats, but both contributed to Murphy. Tully contributed $1,500 last February, just two months after Murphy took office; Phelan gave $500 ion the same month. It appears, too, that some law firms go to bat more than once. Richard D. Worsek of Worsek & Vishon, for instance, ponied up $1,000 to Berrios, as did partner Robert S. Vishon. Leonard M. Schiller, Mitchell L. Klein and Edward T. McElroy each put up $250 for Berrios. And the firm of Schiller, Klein & McElroy separately anteed up $400. Overall, donations from the legal profession seem to run mostly in the $250 to $2,500 range. I counted about 50 lawyers on Berrios' report, which was signed as his campaign treasurer by Kay McCann, who also happens to be an employee of the board as a $69,243-a-year administrative assistant. Shaw had roughly the same number of lawyers, mostly the same people, although the counting was more difficult because his report included more than 30 contributors whose occupations were listed at "unknown." Another curiosity in the campaign fund disclosure reports is that while the board bars tax consultants and allows only lawyers to represent taxpayers at board appeals hearings, board members do get and accept contributions from consultants. Two of the largest and most prominent around here, U.S. Heartland Property Tax Consultants and James Clark Company, gave Berrios, respectively, $1,050 and $1,000. The most striking features of the campaign contributions process at the board are (1) that it is in almost perpetual motion and (2) all the money goes to three people. We have hundreds of judges handling a huge variety of cases around here. They may take contributions from lawyers, too. But those lawyers have no sure thing on who gets their cases. The tax lawyers do. CFAT News Source news@fairtaxes.net Board Has Great Financial Appeal |
