No 'Pay to Play' in the Assessor's Office

Letter to the Editor by Cook County Assessor James M. Houlihan - Crain's Chicago Business

February 6, 2006

Greg Hinz had it right at the outset: There is no "pay to play" in the assessor's office ("Reform — sort of," Jan. 23).

Although I disagree with the negative assertions made by the Better Government Association and Mr. Hinz, I take them very seriously.

Since becoming assessor, I have worked hard to correct misperceptions about my office and to create a better understanding of property taxes. We have made the office transparent by placing assessment data on the more than 1.7 million properties in Cook County on our Web site, www.cookcountyassessor.com. The more the public knows about our office, the better we will perform.

Our commitment is to assessing all property uniformly and serving all taxpayers fairly. I will continue to work hard to improve the assessment process for Cook County, to lower the reliance upon property taxes and to find a fairer way to fund education in Illinois.

Jim Houlihan
Cook County Assessor
Chicago