Assessor's approach hurt businesses

As a small-business owner in Cook County, I am encouraged by Assessor Kaegi's desire to help small businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. However, the fact he is reassessing most properties to help small businesses now calls into question the accuracy of his original assessment process.

Had the assessor not inflated commercial and industrial property assessments from the start, he would not need to use taxpayer dollars to make adjustments now.

The underlying assumptions of the assessor's original math was disproportionately hurting businesses like ours and caused us to enter the COVID-19 crisis in an already vulnerable state.

When my business partner and I received our tax bill for our fitness center last year, our hearts sank when we saw it had doubled. We even reconsidered our entire business model in order to pay rent and survive. Now with COVID-19, we are worried for the future of our business.

Assessor Kaegi said his new method to reassess properties like ours is "not going to be perfectly accurate." This is an unsettling prediction considering his previous methods were also not accurate as proven by the Board of Review's many reductions. The assessor didn't get it right the first time, so my trust he will get it right this time - in this environment - is faint.

I know the assessor is trying to help small businesses who are hurting now, but I am curious if he realized his math was hurting us before? Why did it take pandemic to realize the importance of keeping our doors open?

My hope is he will adjust his model to be fairer and more accurate long after this crisis ends.

Leslie Garrett

Glencoe