Flood and Tax relief available to residents of 47th Ward

Per neighbors on Cuyler Avenue:

Possible Tax relief: Per Laura Engel and Simon Stein :

SHORT form that Alderman Schulter has that takes less than one minute to complete.
They will look up your pin number for you and you do not
have to do any comparable. And yes, if there is a
strong showing, 60% of property holders in 47th
ward,Gene has confirmed a very strong likely hood of
reduction.

Tax assessment and appeal update:

Last night 11/26 there was a meeting regarding real
estate tax increases in our neighborhood. Alderman
Schulter's office has committed to supporting the
residents of our ward to help appeal (reduce) our
recent increased tax assessment.

The process is simple. Here are the steps:

1) Pick up an "assessed valuation complaint" form
from the Alderman's office.

2) Complete the form and return it to the
Alderman's office. Do not mail it in to Cook County on Clark
Street! In order to have the greatest chance of
success, the Alderman wants to submit a large
stack of these appeal forms at the same time.

Alternatively, the form is short enough to be completed in person
at the Alderman's office.

3) Make sure to tell the Alderman's office/staff
that you learned about this appeal opportunity through
the neighborhood outreach program.

Also, please spread the word to all of our neighbors and residents in
our ward.

Conclusions. The Alderman's office believes that
there is a strong chance that 60% of applications
for reduction received will be approved. Those are
great odds and these odds have increased substantially
thanks to the involvement of the Alderman.

However, there is one big condition for this to work. The
Alderman's office needs a big turnout ie.,
completed forms for this to be effective.

The Alderman's office will not be able to do much
for us if they receive only a handful of these forms
from us.

Hence, strongly encourage every property
owner in our ward to submit a valuation complaint form
as quickly as possible. Even if you are very
wealthy, like to pay higher taxes, and don't need any extra
money for investments, vacations, or college
funds, you will be helping your neighbors by submitting
these forms. The Alderman is going to bat for us and
let's show him that we are concerned and displeased with
our increased property taxes.

The deadline for submitting the assessed
valuation complaint form is December 6, 2007

FLOOD DAMAGE THIS SUMMER: PER Simon Stein:

If anyone suffered flood damage this summer, you are potentially eligible for a one year reduction on property taxes based on the damage.

For example, in my case, Allstate estimated our
basement flooding damage at $10,000. According to
the Alderman's office, if I submit proof of this damage,
the Alderman will try to reduce our assessed property
value by a like amount. We have already made the
repairs to our basement, but we are still eligible
for this reduction as we went out of pocket for the
damages.

In order to apply for this separate reduction, proof
of any flood damage must be submitted in a separate
envelope with the tax parcel #. This proof can be a
combination of photos, contractors estimates, and
insurance claim forms. This can be submitted
concurrently with the valuation complaint form.