Cook County treasurer hopefuls debate improving office
Candidates in the Democratic primary for Cook County treasurer have differing opinions of what an office that doesn't vote on or assess anything can do to better serve its constituents.
Whether it's political newcomer Peter Gariepy or 20-year incumbent Maria Pappas who wins March 20, he or she so far has no Republican opponent in the November general election.
Gariepy is prioritizing a system by which taxpayers would be able to see in greater detail how their local taxing bodies are spending their property tax income.
The 34-year-old certified public accountant from Chicago believes people should be able to see not only how much each local government is getting but how much is being spent on their own neighborhood school or nearest police district and forest preserve.
The practical value, Gariepy said, is that citizens can be more specific in their demands of their elected officials rather than just calling for lower taxes in general. He likened it to looking at one's itemized grocery bill and knowing whether one needs to either change his or her buying habits or ask for lower-cost options.
"The goal is not for people to be happy with their taxes; the goal is to be comfortable," he said. "Taxes are not inherently evil. They pay for valued and deserved goods and services. But waste, corruption and vague information is not proper and needs to be rooted out. And that's where this office has truly missed an opportunity."
Gariepy added that the detail he would provide would be based on the work of the treasurer's office, using budgetary information already publicly available from local taxing bodies.
Citing his professional background, Gariepy said he's not running for just any office but one for which he feels uniquely qualified.
Pappas, facing a primary challenger for the first time since 1998, is a fellow Chicago resident with a doctorate in counseling and psychology and a law degree who previously served on the Cook County Board.
The 68-year-old said she took over the office during one of its greatest crises and has made its story one of constant improvement ever since. She touted accessibility of payment options, translating the website into 102 languages and greatly reducing its staff and budget. She said the office gets more than 90 percent of its revenue not from taxpayers but by charging $6 each time a mortgage company wants to get a copy of a client's bill and pay it online.
The most recent major improvement came last December when the office burned the midnight oil to come up with a system by which taxpayers could prepay their first property tax bill due in 2018 when an incentive for them to do so suddenly materialized as a result of federal tax reform, Pappas said.
Saying her opponent is misinformed in his belief that taxpayer bills can be more detailed in the way he describes, Pappas added that he also made a mistake if he thought of her office and reputation as being vulnerable ones to run against at the county level.
"If I were going to run against anybody, it wouldn't be me," Pappas said. "I am well-documented. People who work for me take a tremendous amount of pride in what they do. They will stay up to 3 or 4 in the morning to get something done."
She added that her track record demonstrates that the Cook County treasurer's office would continue to remain cutting-edge under her leadership.
"This is an office that could have run on autopilot, but because the banking industry has changed so dramatically, it has forced us to change," Pappas said. "Because it is a bank - it's the bank of the 16th largest government in the world."