Lake County Gazette

The $330,000 property tax break that Gov. J.B. Pritzker gained has attracted the attention of federal prosecutors who have requested 5 months' worth of files from the Cook County assessor’s office related to two mansions he owns on North Astor Street, according to a July 17 Chicago Sun-Times story.

As previously reported, the tax break was provided to Gov. Pritzker under former Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios. The U.S. Attorney’s office has asked the current assessor, Fritz Kaegi, to release all forms of communication between Pritzker and Berrios’ staff dating back to 2012.

Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) issued the following statement:

“What makes this interesting to me is that the governor has had no shortage of his own party being indicted, charged and investigated and he continues to attempt to take the ethical high road when maybe he should be looking in the mirror. It's a little disingenuous for him to act on his own party, which I completely agree with, and I don't think he's gone far enough in some cases but the reality is his own bookkeeping is going to be questionable. So, obviously the investigation will come to a conclusion one way or the other and the governor probably believes this is far enough behind him since it came out even before he was elected during the campaign season. To me, it's indicative of what’s wrong with politicians in Illinois and I'm not naive enough to think that it's restricted to just the single party but I think the extent to which political corruption is involved, it certainly appears to be much more heavily cited in one party than the other.”

Although Gov. Pritzker reportedly reimbursed Cook County the $330,000 tax break two years ago, Sen. Wilcox doesn’t think it makes a difference.

“I look at that as an acknowledgment that he probably made an error and an ethical lapse that he's trying to make up for but just because a criminal provides restitution is not in the eyes of the law complete recompense,” Wilcox told the Lake County Gazette. “There often are charges and either jail time or other aspects. So, just because you pay off a victim doesn't mean that you made that victim whole and, in this case, that's the taxpayers.”  

Whether Gov. Pritzker will be imprisoned, Wilcox added, will depend on past criminal history.

“I'm going to guess that he probably has no former felonies on his record so probably probation, additional fines and then acknowledgment,” said Wilcox in an interview. “I would be surprised if there were actually jail time with this. This is the epitome of white-collar crime and some of those do end up with jail time but I'd be surprised to see jail time in this case.”

The inquiry into Gov. Pritzker’s properties is part of a larger investigation that includes Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and House Speaker Michael Madigan who is also head of the Illinois Democratic Party.

“This is why Illinois residents fail to have very much trust in our government and I, for one, coming out of the military hope that I can present an ethical posture that makes our citizens proud to have me as a representative and I wish that I had many more like me in the general assembly and in state offices,” Wilcox said.