Polan wants the assessment reduced 31.6 percent to $574,784. The Cook County Board of Review has turned down his appeal, so he's appealed that decision to the state Property Tax Appeal Board.
All such appeals of more than $100,000 trigger a notice to local taxing districts. In many suburbs, those districts react by joining to hire a lawyer to fight the appeal.
"This is money that's not going to educate the boys and girls of District 39," Wilmette elementary school district Superintendent Max McGee said Monday, referring to successful appeals. "And I personally think the assessor does a pretty good job."
The village of Wilmette and the Wilmette Park District have voted already to hire the lawyer.
New Trier Township High School District 203 hasn't voted yet. Associate Superintendent for Business Don Goers said New Trier is waiting to see whether McGee's district, which would pay 45 percent of the legal fees, backs the fight before voting to kick in its 33 percent.
The numbers are based on the districts' cuts of the tax pie.
District 39 is expected to vote on the expenditure today (Thursday).
One School Board member won't be voting, because he has a conflict of interest.
His name is Greg Polan.
Polan, a six-year board member, never votes to fight property tax appeals anyway, McGee says.
"I believe that we, as citizens of the United States, are taxed enough, and we have the right to appeal," Polan explained last week.
He said he never votes to fight a tax appeal, even of a commercial property, because he doesn't like the district picking on property owners.
"I'm a big supporter of the district and its foundation," said the owner of Skokie's Alltown Bus Service, a school transportation company that doesn't bid on District 39 business.
Ah, but last I knew, he had the District 39 PTA field trip business, and....the New Trier business.
The school board is rife with conflicts of interest. What's rare is to have someone on the board who is anti-tax. (Or anyone who is truly interested in educational excellence for that matter.)
Related posts: Public Servitude
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