Chicago Ethics Update: Boss Madigan Delivers $1.7 Million Tax Break For Firm His Son Works At .

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

When Mesirow Financial Services — a Chicago company that manages millions of dollars in pension funds for the state of Illinois — and its partners wanted to fight the property taxes on their new skyscraper, they called the law offices of Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan.

Madigan’s law firm saved the Mesirow group more than $1.7 million in real estate taxes by persuading Cook County officials to slash the value of the River North building by 60 percent soon after it opened nearly five years ago.

Mesirow no longer owns the building at 353 N. Clark that still serves as its headquarters. But the law firm of Madigan & Getzendanner has continued to save Mesirow money by getting the tax bills lowered for the building’s owner.

Madigan’s firm has gotten Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios — chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party and a political ally of Madigan, the chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party — to slash the skyscraper’s value, arguing it hasn’t been particularly profitable, in part because of “generous rent abatements” Mesirow agreed to give its tenants, including Mesirow itself.

Guess who works at Mesirow Financial : none other than Mike Madigan's son.