Taxing district slams businesses in Chicago

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

The City of Chicago really isn’t trying to chase small businesses away from the needy West Pullman community. But the business owners can be excused for thinking that it is.

Their crisis in faith arrived in November with the property tax bill, payable by Dec. 13. These were the dreaded “second installment” bills for the year. Chicago homeowners and merchants schooled in the process know to expect sometimes big changes in the year’s second and last tax bill.

A cluster of businesses along South Halsted did not, however, expect bills to more than double from what they paid earlier this year.


Gary Ettema and Bonnie Sutherland, siblings who run Action Auto Rebuilders Inc. at 11934 S. Halsted, said taxes on their two buildings rose from about $11,000 for the first installment to $29,000 in the latest one.

You'll want to read what Gina Caruso, assistant commissioner of the Department of Community Development , says about the situation. No word yet on whether Gina Caruso knows who Bruno Caruso or Frank "Toots" Caruso is. No word also on whether Gina Caruso has seen this chart.