I still think you're completely wrong on this. You're acting like Illinois's financial situation is caused by stuff like this when it's absolutely not. States with far lower property taxes are in far better fiscal situations than Illinois right now. It's not wrong to do what you can to pay less in taxes to a corrupt, incompetent state government. I'm certain that $3,000 will be put to better use by Denis than it would have been by the state of IL. Maybe he'll buy a few of us more drinks.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Stop. You don't know what you are talking about.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

What about people that bought a house years ago that was well within their means, but now have seen the property tax escalation raise their escrow exponentially, to the point where the mortgage is now near double?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Those are the kind of people should be appealing.

I'm not against appealing. Go read the tone of denis' first post. He knows that his house is undervalued in their calculations and did it just because he wanted to pay less money which even then I'm not against that on it's own. Just don't be surprised that the state is in a bad financial situation to the point where you are actively planning how you can leave the state when guys who make a decent living use the system to pay below what they should simply because they can.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

To be clear, you are advocating a Bernie Sanders level of socialism here....

The Assessor determines the market value. Are you going to assume that a government bureaucrat will accurately assess each of the tens of thousands of parcels each year (or once every three years in the case of Cook County)?

Zillow, a private company whose reason for existence is to evaluate home values was just sued because they so rarely are correct.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

No.

If denis' thought his property value was not realistic then there is no problem with him appealing. It was not designed for the appeal process to be "I'd rather pay less money and even though I already pay less than my neighbors and I would likely sell my house for MORE than what my value is listed as so I want to appeal".

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Read what denis wrote in his first post.

If he had claimed his home was overvalued and he therefore appealed then we aren't having this discussion. As I said, I'm not against appealing. I was involved with one at my previous place.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

What denis, a laymen, knows about the valuation of property could is irrelevant and most likely incorrect. He had evidence, most likely in the form of a professional appraisal or comparable situated properties in his neighborhood, that showed the home was overvalued.

denis' hypocrisy is a different issue. I leave that up to you and God to judge that.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

There's obviously no hypocrisy here. If Denis was a "tax the rich" Bernie supporter it would be hypocritical

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

He told us his house is valued at 30% less than what the comparable situated properties are. I understand he won his appeal but that could be for many different reasons.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

If he keeps winning appeals than that means the state keeps acknowledging they fucked up. And you're mad at Denis for bringing that fuckup to their attention and getting it rectified? This whole conversation is absurd.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

There is nothing immoral or inherently wrong with wanting to put less money into an inherently corrupt system. I applaud Denis here for finding a way to legally pay less.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

If the fiscal situation in Illinois worries you but you keep giving Madigan a majority, then you have no right to complain about those who find ways to pay less

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

I'll try this one more time.

denis, in his first post, indicated that his house was valued fairly at least after the first appeal. After the third appeal, it was 30% less than the comparable homes in his neighborhood. Assuming he got 10% knocked off every time are we saying the state was wrong even though they had undervalued his house by 20%. That makes no sense. There are a lot of reasons why the government would have lost or may not even have fought it as they may simply not have had the resources to fight it.

So, for hopefully the last time, denis made it well known that this was not about the government making a mistake. It was about using the system to pay less than what he "should" based on the actual value of his house. I can promise you that if denis put his house on the market tomorrow he is putting it up for the same price his neighbors are putting their homes up for and not the 30% lower that he pays in taxes.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yeah, I mean all you're doing is repeating yourself and you're still wrong each time. This is a silly thing to be arguing.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Brick just can't give up an argument when he's wrong it seems.

There it is. Two "You're wrong" posts with nothing else. My work is done.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

When FF and I actually agree on something. Odds are, you are wrong.

I get the opposite feeling.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Wow go to lunch and miss a lot. My house was Mis-assessed in the wake of the subprime crisis. So was the entire neighborhood. My only recourse was to appeal the assessment, which I did three times.

Peak to trough values in my neighbor we're down about 40%.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

If one person lowers their property tax, its not actually shorting any money to the county. When the county determines your assessed property value, you are assigned that % of county debt. So when d-man lowers his equivalent value by $3000, that money is made up by redistributing that money across his neighborhood.

The entire neighborhood was overvalued based on comparable sales. You had to contest to get your assessment to match fair market value.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Nothing else? You still haven't made a coherent rebuttal to any of my points in this thread. This is honestly the most ridiculous position I've ever seen you argue on here. It's an all time dumb argument. By granting the appeal the IL government itself is stating you are wrong just let it go

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Sounds like denis and his subdivision don't want to pay their fair share.

SAD!

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Exactly. And I told all my neighbors to do the same. The levy doesn't change.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Right you shit stirrer!

The appeals board agreed with me.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

So essentially, the entire crux of BRICK's point was wrong?

As I alluded to earlier, I'm with BRick on this one.

Scenario A: Dennis's house is assessed at 400k and comparable properties are at 300k. He is well within his rights (including morally) to appeal to get the assessment in line with the others.

Sceanrio B: Dennis's house is assessed at 400k but so are all his neighbors' comparable houses. He is somehow able to get his assessment lowered to 300k, which ultimately puts more burden on the neighbors.

I read the original post as Scenario B.

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