Assessor Candidate Benefits From Property Tax Lawyers

By DAN MIHALOPOULOS and DARNELL LITTLE

By day, Joseph Berrios is the longest-serving member of the three-man board that holds the power to cut the property tax bill for any parcel in Cook County. By night, Mr. Berrios is a master fund-raiser, bringing in about $3 million in political contributions over the last decade from the same lawyers who ask him and the board to give tax breaks to their clients.

The amount of contributions from property tax lawyers to Mr. Berrios’s campaign committees was uncovered by the Chicago News Cooperative in a comprehensive review of campaign finance reports and Board of Review decisions. Donations from property tax appeal lawyers account for 64 percent of the money raised over the past decade by Mr. Berrios, who also is chairman of the county’s Democratic Party.

The lawyer-fueled contributions are providing a big fund-raising edge for Mr. Berrios as he seeks the Democratic nomination for the higher office of county assessor in Tuesday’s primary.

Roughly one-third of Mr. Berrios’s campaign money comes from 15 law firms that have gained the most for their clients from the property tax appeal panel. Together, those top firms have contributed almost $1 million to six political committees controlled by Mr. Berrios and to his daughter, State Representative Maria Antonia Berrios, Democrat of Chicago.

Government watchdog groups say the close ties between the commissioner and the lawyers who argue cases before the board is alarming.