Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Chicago’s City Attorney admits he made a mistake and says he will pay back money to the state of Illinois after collecting property tax exemptions on two properties, while state law only allows homeowners to collect one such exemption,” NBC Chicago reports.
“Attorney Mark Flessner says that his primary residence is a South Loop condo, but an NBC 5 Investigates report reveals that he has received two property tax breaks, including one for a residence in Naperville.
“The breaks have saved him approximately $2,600 on his South Loop condo since 2015 and $1,600 on his Naperville house, but according to property tax experts, the law is clear: residents are only entitled to one homeowners exemption.”
Flessner is – or was – a partner at Holland & Knight, which I suspect is a well-paying gig. The 52nd-highest grossing law firm in the world, in fact. Hard to see why he was taking the dual exemption to save what, for him, is chump change.


But some folks just like to save money, or cheat the system. Or perhaps it was an honest mistake – though I’m told that even if an accountant does your taxes (Flessner surely doesn’t do his own taxes, c’mon), the homeowner has to personally sign the homestead exemption papers. I’ve heard other explanations floated too which I won’t get into here, but it would be nice to know what exactly happened here so we can make a judgement on his fitness to be the city’s corporation counsel.
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It seems like a couple pols get tripped up by the homestead exemption every year around here. Assignment Desk: Let’s see a list, including the consequences each suffered. For some, I feel like it was fairly severe! Also, can we determine if in any of those cases it was truly an honest mistake?
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Meanwhile, no new details on the mayor’s firing of media heartthrob Bill McCaffrey.
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Apropos of nothing but curiosity, I learned in backgrounding Flessner (perhaps more on that later) that he gave an interview to the World Socialist Web Site last year about a client detained by ICE.
And besides his law degree, he has a master’s in divinity from Notre Dame.
Believe me, I’m not trying to shine him up for you. But if a decent profile of him hasn’t been done yet, it should be done now – including a scrub of any available tax records, court files and so on. Just to make sure.
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Women Of The Board
“For 46 publicly held companies in California with all-male boards, the clock is ticking,” CalMatters reports.
“The corporations, including pharmaceutical, financial and software companies that tend to be on the smaller, younger side, have only until revelers ring in 2020 to name a woman to their boards of directors or face a $100,000 penalty.
“A bill signed into law by former Gov. Jerry Brown in September 2018 required public companies with headquarters in California to name at least one female director by the end of 2019. The law further mandates that companies with five-member boards have at least two female directors by the end of 2021; corporations with six or more directors need at least three women. The penalties for failing to comply rise accordingly.”
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You may recall efforts here in the last year to do the same in Illinois. Instead, as CalMatters puts its, “Illinois enacted a pale version of the California law, requiring publicly traded companies to report each year their boards’ demographics and plans to promote diversity.”
It didn’t start out that way, though.
“The Illinois bill initially went further than California’s legislation, calling for at least one woman and one African American to serve on the boards of publicly traded companies,” Forbes notes.
“Following a backlash by the state’s business interests and several boards with directors of diverse backgrounds, the bill was modified and signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker in August 2019.”
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Minnesota Influx
“Minnesota has . . . managed to do something most of the rest of the Midwest hasn’t: gain residents from other states,” City Pages reports.
“Some 8,000 out-of-staters moved to Minnesota in 2017, and another 7,000 moved here the following year. Meanwhile, the rest of the Midwest region lost about 318,400 people through migration to other parts of the U.S. The only other Midwest state to beat the drain was Indiana, and as the report puts it, Minnesota’s gain was ‘nearly double’ what Indiana got.”
I wonder if the Tribune editorial board has ever heard of Minnesota. With a progressive state income tax already long in place, the previous governor nonetheless increased taxes on the wealthy, raised the minimum wage and increased spending on education. Guess what? It worked!
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
Radius Ticketing Already Sucks
New Pilsen venue off to bad start | “Are you people fucking high?”
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How Meet The Press Faked An Impeachment Panel In A Michigan Bar
Next time you want to talk to “real people,” maybe just talk to real people.
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Affordable Mental Health Care Getting Even Tougher To Find
Parity law clearly not working. Why? Greed.
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Trump Rule Could Let Banks Classify NFL Stadium Investments As Aid To Poor, Qualifying For Significant Tax Break
Jerry Reinsdorf would be one beneficiary.
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Coffman: Mitch More Jacoby Than Drew
Where the similarities lie.
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Welcome To Cli-Fi
Climate change literature is a thing.
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And . . .
The Beachwood Holiday Gift Guide 2019
We can longer guarantee delivery by Christmas Day!
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ChicagoReddit

At the Chicago botanical garden 🙂 from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
Rodriguez at City Winery last Friday night.

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BeachBook
Fashion Nova’s Secret: Underpaid Workers In Los Angeles Factories.

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Springfield History: Surviving The Depression’s Bank Holiday With Scrip.

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TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.
This is such a no-brainer. Literally. No brains were involved in the construction of this poll.


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Illinois state Rep. Will Guzzardi wants to do this here.


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The Beachwood Dick Line: Your last resort.

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Posted on December 17, 2019