When he first ran to be a Commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review, Dan Patlak said he wanted to have the best trained staff at the Board. He promised that his staff would take continuing education classes and would work toward becoming Certified Illinois Assessment Officers (CIAO). Several staffers are closing in on attaining that designation; while most others will continue taking continuing education courses.

In order to receive the CIAO designation, a student must successfully complete and pass 60 hours of courses. To receive the CIAO designation, students must understand the cost, market and income approaches to value, mass appraisal techniques and property tax administration. To maintain the CIAO designation, one must take 60 additional hours of course work every four years.

Analysts hired by Commissioner Patlak have taken classes available through the Illinois Department of Revenue such as" Intro to Sales Ratio" or classes from the Illinois Property Assessment Institute. All of the classes taken directly pertain to the job of property analyst at the Board of Review. Some of the classes Board analysts will take this year include "Basic Assessment Practices," "Introduction of Mass Appraisal Techniques" and "Property Valuation." Several analysts have even paid to take these classes out of their own pockets including travel costs for classes not available in the Chicago area.

Commissioner Patlak collaborated with the Illinois Department of Revenue and Illinois Property Assessment Institute to conduct many of the classes at the Board of Review in 2013. This makes it easier to attend these courses at less cost to Board of Review employees and taxpayers.

"Knowing our craft better will enable us to continue doing the best job possible," said analyst John Dyslin. "When a homeowner or business owner appeals their property assessment, they should know that the analysts reviewing their cases are educated and qualified to do the job. That is why attending continuing education classes is so important."

Every community has their own collection of small businesses, many of them family owned and operated. We consider them as fixtures in our neighborhoods and it is painful to see them struggle in this tough economy. They face relentless competition from big box stores and on-line shopping. Shoppers are always looking for bargains and local merchants find it difficult to fight a pricing war. Loyalty to community and friendly service seem to be the most important characteristics of the successful local business, however, you have another important reason to shop locally: supporting your local businesses will keep your property taxes down.

It's easy to understand that sales taxes collected locally will help your local governments, but property tax help is more complicated. Residential property owners and businesses share the property tax burden. The higher the assessed value, the more you pay in property taxes. Commercial property owners have a higher level of assessment than residential and will pay two and half times as much for the same market value of property. This variation in assessment is a Cook County phenomenon and puts tremendous pressure on our Cook County businesses that are close to a bordering county. That is why the effort of Cook County Board President, Toni Prekwinkle, to bring down the sales tax is so important.

Commercial property is valued according to the income they produce, so when struggling businesses in Cook County close, they reduce the property value and the amount of taxes paid for that property. The assessed value of a commercial property is determined by the rent that is collected by the property owner.  When a store front is vacant, the rent revenue stream is diminished. Since the taxing bodies are not lowering their levies, all the property owners that are left pay the lost tax revenue. For example: if a five-store strip mall that has five businesses paying an equal amount of rent then  loses two businesses, the property owner can lose 40% of his income and be entitled to a 40% reduction in his assessed valuation for that property. Pay attention to those empty storefronts in your community. We are all paying that share of property taxes.

So when your local Chamber of Commerce encourages you to buy locally, remember that driving out of town to save a little money may cost you in your property tax bill.  Save your local stores and save yourself some property tax costs.

Friends,

It has been a long and harrowing campaign for the past three years starting in June 2009 when we made the decision to run for Commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review. We have gone through four contested elections, two primaries and two generals and prevailed each time.

Thank you for your help. Thank you for your financial support. Thank you for your encouragement. Thank you for your e-mails, Facebook Likes, yard sign placements, literature distribution, blog posts, letters to the editors, parade marching, endorsements, votes and everything else so many of you have done to help in this long and challenging journey.

Our campaign was often outspent but never outworked. We have triumphed over lies and distortions, bitterness and vilification.

In only two short years since we put our team in place at the Board we have made significant and substantial improvements at our office that have benefitted the public in real tangible ways. On November 6, we were blessed with four additional years to continue our mission of providing competence, professionalism and honesty to all Cook County residents who are affected by the work of our Board of Review.

We will make it a point to keep you abreast of our progress. So until the next time you receive a note from us, please know we will be working hard to continue earning your confidence, trust and support.

Best regards to you and your family,

Dan Patlak
Commissioner
Cook County Board of Review-1st District

The Patlak Family celebrating another election victory!

The results are:
Dan Patlak with 304,003 votes with 51.42%
Casey Griffin with 287,235 votes with 48.58%

Thank you to everyone who helped make this victory possible!