Claypool is best pick for Cook assessor

Current Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Joseph Berrios is also chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. He is one of the persons who reviews your tax assessment and determines if it needs to be lowered. He listens to arguments presented by attorneys whose law firms are mostly owned by names that you will see on your ballot in November.

He also has a lobbying firm B-P Consultants ("BP" doesn't currently have a good ring to it) which is a registered lobbyist for the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association. His firm is lobbied the General Assembly to weaken the authority of the state gaming board to deny licenses for video gaming to those parties with organized crime ties.

Berrios is also currently running for Cook County Assessor in November. His Republican opponent is the current Evanston city assessor who we were told recently admitted that her office did not report 1,500 building permits to Cook County over a three-year period costing millions in property tax revenue. As I recently said "you couldn't make this stuff up."

Fortunately, we do have a choice in this case as Forrest Claypool is running as an independent candidate for Cook County Assessor.

Jack Halpin

Arlington Heights