Metro East Sun

The $330,000 property tax break that Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker gained attracted the attention of federal prosecutors who have requested 5 months' worth of files from the Cook County assessor’s office related to two mansions he owns on North Astor Street, according to a Chicago Sun-Times story.

As previously reported, the tax break was provided to Gov. Pritzker under former Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, a Democrat. The U.S. Attorney’s office has asked the current assessor, Democrat Fritz Kaegi, to release all forms of communication between Pritzker and Berrios’ staff dating back to 2012.

Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Madison) issued the following statement:

“Right now, you have one man running the state of Illinois and last time I checked, if I'm not mistaken, he's under federal investigation for questionable real estate tax activity that he and/or his family undertook in Chicago. His legislative allies are either under investigation or under indictment and these are the people who are sleepwalking Illinois through this crisis.”

The inquiry into Gov. Pritzker’s properties is part of a larger investigation that includes Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is also head of the Illinois Democratic Party.

ComEd reportedly agreed to pay a $200 million fine after a federal investigation exposed payments of more than $1.3 million to associates of Madigan who is named in a U.S. Attorney's office document as "Public Official A."

Rather than being under investigation, Plummer said Gov. Pritzker should be calling a special session to address issues related to COVID-19.

“I've been saying that we should be in session since March,” he said. “We were briefly in session for a handful of days in May so we should absolutely be in session now. No doubt about it. But it’s not just the governor. It’s also the governor's allies who are very loyal to J.B. Pritzker's checkbook who should be calling us into session, right? Sen. (Don) Harmon should be calling us into session. Mike Madigan should be calling us into session if he's not in handcuffs but, unfortunately, they're not calling us into session because they don't want to offend Gov. Pritzker’s checkbook because he funds them.”

While Gov. Pritzker reportedly reimbursed Cook County the tax break money two years ago, Madigan, through a spokeswoman, denied any wrongdoing, according to NBC Chicago.

“He has never made a legislative decision with improper motives and has engaged in no wrongdoing here,” Madigan’s spokeswoman said in a statement. “Any claim to the contrary is unfounded. This morning the speaker accepted subpoenas related to his various offices for documents, asking for, among other things, documents related to possible job recommendations. He will cooperate and respond to those requests for documents, which he believes will clearly demonstrate that he has done nothing criminal or improper.”

Statewide, there have been 277,266 coronavirus cases and 8,486 deaths, according to the Department of Illinois Public Health dashboard.

“These are the people who have the information, who have the data, and they're not releasing it in a complete form to the constituents,” Plummer added. “I didn't sign up to be a state Senator just when the sun's out and the economy is good and everything's going well. Right now, more than ever, the legislators, the representatives and the senators should be in Springfield doing their job, representing their constituents and instead we're missing an action.”