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This realization hit me yet again at a press conference put together yesterday by Cook County assessor James Houlihan and several ministers from around the city. Held on the steps of First Baptist Congregational, at Washington and Ashland, it was intended as a show of support for the cap–which in fact is not a cap at all but a home owner’s exemption of $20,000. Passed in 2004 to help limit the hit taxpayers were taking as a result of rising reassessments, the “cap” is set to expire this year, in which case the home owner’s exemption would plummet back down to $4,500.
He was supposed to show up at yesterday’s press conference, or at least send a representative. But no one from the mayor’s office came. Instead Daley hastily put together his own press conference unveiling a new proposal for an independent police oversight board. Set at City Hall at the same time as Houlihan’s press conference, it drew most of the mainstream media away and became front-page news. There was next to nothing about Houlihan’s press conference.
