Jay Paul Deratany is running what can only be called a Claypoolian campaign against incumbent Cook County Board of Review commissioner Joseph Berrios.
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Berrios is the longest-serving member of the board, a three-person panel that plays a key role in determining who pays what in property taxes. To understand how, you need to know a thing or two about property taxes—I’ll keep it short. The amount you pay is determined by multiplying the assessed value of your property, as determined by Cook County assessor James Houlihan, by the tax rate. The lower your assessment, the lower your bill. So each year thousands upon thousands of property owners come before Berrios and his fellow board members, Larry Rogers and Brendan Houlihan, to argue that their assessments are too high.
Deratany contends it’s a conflict of interest for Berrios, who’s also chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, to hear cases represented by elected officials like Madigan and alderman Ed Burke, another prominent property tax attorney. “This is appalling,” he says. “We have a system where Madigan comes before Berrios to get a break for his client. If that’s not them scratching each other’s butt, I don’t know what is.”
Thanks in part to Axelrod’s influence, Deratany has endorsements from Claypool, Cook County commissioner Mike Quigley, U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky, and assessor James Houlihan. Deratany says his campaign is part of a larger insurrection against Todd Stroger’s rule as county board president. If he wins, it will be because he effectively stamped Stroger’s face onto Berrios’s body and made the two inseparable in the eyes of voters. “The little bungalow- belt owner doesn’t have the connections to get denial after denial,” says Deratany. “We have to change the system.”
