Taxes Usher a Business Out of Cook County
By J. Linn Allen in the Chicago Tribune

Until a couple of years ago, Henry Maday was running a wholesale greenhouse on about eight acres in Calumet City, a business he'd had since 1964.

In 1994, his property tax bill, based on the Cook County tax assessment, was more than $97,000.

Today, Maday has transferred the entire business to Crete in Will County, about 12 miles away. There he has 20 acres with new greenhouses. His 1998 tax bill was a little over $14,000.

"It got to a point where it was unfeasible to stay [in Calumet City]," said Maday, who has protested his taxes for 15 years.  "I couldn't stay forever, I couldn't afford to operate that way."

Maday has been trying to sell the Calumet City land, but the sale hasn't gone through yet and he is liable for the taxes.  Despite the fact that he's torn down all the buildings except for a farmhouse he still lives in, his estimated 1998-tax bill (payable in 1999) is $99,016.

That's based on the assessor's estimate that his land has a market value of more than $1 million. That valuation is being appealed on the grounds that the pending sales contract on the land is for only $450,000.

Maday's tax bills in Cook County are "not only exorbitant but confiscatory," said Andrea Raila, a tax consultant who is handling Maday's appeal.

Raila is trying to get most of the land classified as vacant. For the last several years she has been trying to get an agricultural classification for the land, which was listed as commercial because Maday ran a small retail sales operation there.  Raila argues the tax code supports her claim.

Maday's business is much more profitable in Crete. "There's a lot less overhead, and we're only 15 minutes further south.  We're two miles south of Cook County, and that's just far enough."

Maday, a former president of the Chamber of Commerce in Calumet City, said the south suburbs are "really suffering" from the burden of property taxes.

The south suburbs, with a declining tax base as industry moves out of the area, lower residential property values than elsewhere in the county and the high cost of services due to poverty and crime, are the most heavily taxed in Cook County.

The party under contract to buy Maday's Calumet City property is, incidentally, a cemetery operation.  And cemeteries are generally exempt from real estate taxes.