Real estate tax and assessment lunacy

With all the lunacy going on in Washington, remember what the Republican Party did to you personally with their trillion-dollar tax gift to corporations and the uber rich. The decision to try and offset some of the cost of this gift was to limit your federal income tax deduction for state and local real estate taxes to $10,000.

Moody's documented that nationally home prices have fallen 4% for a total of $1.04 trillion. In New York and Chicago, the number is between 10% and 11% due to this limitation on your SALT deduction.

Not to be outdone in lunacy, the Democrats continue to put the final nail in our coffin with their handling of the Cook County Assessor's Department. Even though we voted the head of the Democratic Party out of the assessor's office, the new guy actually seems to be worse than Joe Berrios. My three-year assessed value increased over 30%. I can appeal this idiotic assessment, but even if I am successful I have to pay the lawyer 33% to get the bill corrected.

The lack of a full SALT deduction and the increased assessed valuation is going to put a huge halt in the real estate market if it hasn't already.

We really need to get mad at all these politicians and vote all of them out of office.

John Halpin

Arlington Heights