Are You F**king Kidding Me? CTU Fights Paying Taxes Using Crony Chicago Machine Politics Lawyers
In what seems the most damning evidence yet of how far the Chicago Teachers Union into the cesspool of political corruption and how far the current Union Leadership under Stacy Davis Gates and Jackson Potter have gone from advocating for worker rights in Chicago. A Twitter posting by @JeffO773 caught the teachers union leadership red handed appealing their property taxes and using Jennifer Burke's law firm to reduce those taxes. 
The same politically connected Burke family who reduced Trump towers taxes that cost the Chicago Board of Education about $500,000 in tax revenue.
The same Ed Burke indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges.
Yes, the Chicago Teachers Union is using a connected Machine Politics law firm to not pay their fair share of taxes for the public schools in Chicago.
We are not making this shit up.
Stacy and Jackson have shown their true faces.
They are the people that hurt our children.
They are the people that hurt the citizens of Chicago.
They fooled everyone, including me.
Shame on All of us for getting fooled so easily.
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City of Chicago Alderman Ed Burke Indicted on Federal Racketeering and Bribery Charges in Connection with Alleged Corruption Schemes ... the crux of the sprawling superseding indictment is that Ald. Burke pressured real estate developers to hire his private law firm, Klafter & Burke, in exchange for Ald. Burke’s assistance in securing official favors, including lucrative tax breaks and permits from the City of Chicago. In nineteen counts, the grand jury charges Ald. Burke with violations of federal laws prohibiting racketeering, federal program bribery, extortion, and the use of interstate facilities in furtherance of violating those and other laws.
The link below is the main page of Property Details for the Chicago Teachers Union property, yet is leaves out other Property Numbers or PINs it owns that are used for parking lots. www.cookcountyassessor.com
https://www.cookcountyassessor.com/pin/17074040110000
All the while Brandon Johnson as a full-time CTU staffer and Cook County Commissioner who is running for Chicago Mayor talks about increasing taxes while his puppet masters Stacy and Jackson try to dodge the taxes for the building and properties they run.
United Working Families, a progressive group affiliated with the Chicago Teachers Union that has joined the CTU in endorsing Johnson, has long championed a $4.5 billion wish list of revenue-generating ideas it says would level the playing field between Chicago’s haves and have-nots.
That group’s plan includes a 3.5% city income tax on Chicagoans and suburbanites earning more than $100,000 a year; a financial transaction tax; a 66% increase in the city’s hotel tax, which is already the highest in the country; a revived employee head tax; and raising the real estate transfer tax on high-end home sales.
Johnson’s plan embraces some of those ideas and adds a few of his own in order to freeze property taxes on Chicago homeowners and cancel the automatic escalator imposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The escalator locks in annual property tax increases at the inflation rate. He does not, however, specify a rate for a city income tax.
“Our city faces a housing crisis and raising property taxes would only exacerbate that crisis, leading to a death spiral for our city,” Johnson’s financial plan states.
“As mayor, Brandon Johnson will not raise property taxes on Chicago families. Property taxes are already painfully high.”
Homeowners in predominantly Hispanic wards are struggling to hang onto their homes after enduring increases in both assessments and property tax rates, with some bills up by more than 40%.
Johnson is determined not to make the problem worse.
Instead, he wants to “make the suburbs, airlines & ultra-rich pay their fair share” to generate “$800 million in new revenue.”
“The suburban tax base utilizes Chicago’s infrastructure to earn their disproportionately higher income, yet their taxes fund already wealthy towns. A Metra “city surcharge” will raise $40 million from the suburbs,” his plan states, without saying precisely how the commuter tax would be imposed or at what level.
Johnson’s plan also includes:
• Reinstating the $4-a-month-per-employee “head tax” to generate $20 million, but confining the levy long-despised by Chicago’s business leaders to “large companies” that perform at least half their work in Chicago. The cut-off is aimed at “allowing businesses to continue to create new jobs,” his plan states.
• Raising $98 million by “making the big airlines pay for polluting the air” in Chicago neighborhoods.
• Taxing financial transactions — Johnson calls it a “Big Banks Securities and Speculation Tax” — at a rate of $1 or $2 for every “securities trading contract.” A tax of “less than 0.002 percent of a trade’s value” would generate $100 million, he said.
• Hiking a Chicago hotel tax that’s already the nation’s highest to generate $30 million more.
• Imposing “new user fees for high-end commercial districts frequented by the wealthy, suburbanites, tourists and business travelers” to generate $100 million.
• Honoring Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s broken campaign promise to raise the real estate transfer tax on high-end home sales to create a dedicated source of funding to reduce homelessness and create affordable housing. Johnson said what he calls a “Chicago Mansion Tax” would raise $100 million a year.
• Funneling $100 million per year from tax increment financing surpluses into the corporate fund that essentially serves as the city’s checking account.
• Getting serious about selling what he calls “Chicago’s world-class water” and exploring the idea of “expanding” the city’s health care plan for public employees to “neighboring municipalities.”
• Maximizing advertising revenues from public assets and expanding so-called “Social Impact Investing programs” to attract more private sector investments in Chicagoans, thereby “lessening the burden on taxpayers.”
“The revenues and efficiencies in this plan add up to about $2 billion total to close Chicago’s current, $1 billion structural deficit and add another $1 billion in new investments from the Better Chicago Agenda,” Johnson’s plan states.
www.kbclawgroup.com
www.ctuf.org/about/leadership-team/
Grand Jury Indictment Ed Burke Federal Racketeering, Bribery and Extortion charges 19-CR-001 Jan 2, 2019
https://www.scribd.com/document/621944020/19-CR-001-Complaint-Filed-Chicago-Alderman-Ed-Burke-Indicted-on-Federal-Racketeering-and-Bribery-Charges
Ed Burke Federal Criminal Charges of Racketeering, Bribery and extortion. 19-CR-322 filed May 30, 2019
https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/20559263-0--26948.pdf
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Sources for Report
Grand Jury Indictment 19 Charges against Ed Burke for Federal Public Corruption and Racketeering Charges 19-CR-322 filed May 30, 2019 https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/20559263-0--26948.pdf
Unsealed Records 19 CR 001 Complaint Filed Chicago Alderman Ed Burke Indicted on Federal Racketeering and Bribery Charges filed Jan 2, 2019 https://www.scribd.com/document/621944020/19-CR-001-Complaint-Filed-Chicago-Alderman-Ed-Burke-Indicted-on-Federal-Racketeering-and-Bribery-Charges
A Look at Burke’s Business Dealings, Including Work for President Trump. www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/a-look-at-burkes-business-dealings-including-work-for-president-trump
Agorakis, Stavros. “Federal Agents Mysteriously Raided a Chicago Politician and Former Trump Attorney’s Office.” Vox, 29 Nov. 2018, www.vox.com/2018/11/29/18118393/ed-burke-fbi-raid-trump-lawyer
Ald. Ed Burke Set to Stand Trial Nov. 6, 2023 — Nearly 4 1/2 Years after Indictment. WTTW News, news.wttw.com/2022/07/12/ald-ed-burke-set-stand-trial-nov-6-2023-nearly-4-12-years-after-indictment
Attorney Law Firm | KBC Law Group | Chicago www.kbclawgroup.com
Bowden, John. “Former Trump Lawyer, Chicago Alderman Charged with Attempted Extortion.” The Hill, 3 Jan. 2019 thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/423731-former-trump-lawyer-chicago-alderman-charged-with-attempted
Burke Saved Trump $11.7M in Chicago Property-Tax Appeal Scheme. Illinois Policy, 30 Apr. 2016 www.illinoispolicy.org/burke-saved-trump-11-7m-in-chicago-property-tax-appeal-scheme
Chicago Ald. Burke Faces 14 New Corruption Charges in Growing Scandal. WBEZ Chicago, 30 May 2019 www.wbez.org/stories/chicago-ald-burke-faces-new-corruption-charges/f4b78fdc-1115-4103-82e5-13e1c20feab4
Donald Trump Gets a $300,000 Tax Break on Trump Tower after Fritz Kaegi Slashes Assessment.” Chicago Sun-Times, 10 Sept. 2021, chicago.suntimes.com/2021/9/10/22665463/donald-trump-tower-tax-break-fritz-kaegi
Ed Burke, Chicago’s Longest-Serving Alderman, Will Not Seek Reelection by Dawn Rhodes @ Block Club Chicago, 29 Nov. 2022, blockclubchicago.org/2022/11/28/ed-burke-chicagos-longest-serving-alderman-will-not-seek-reelection
Kaegi Hits Trump Tower with Big Tax Increase a Year after Slashing Its Taxes. Chicago Sun-Times, 29 Apr. 2022 chicago.suntimes.com/2022/4/29/23043466/kaegi-trump-international-tower-property-taxes
Mayoral Candidate Brandon Johnson Unveils Tax-The-Rich Plan to Bankroll Social Services. Chicago Sun-Times, 24 Jan. 2023, chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2023/1/23/23568177/mayoral-challenger-brandon-johnson-taxes-real-estate-financial-transactions
Northern District of Illinois | City of Chicago Alderman Indicted on Federal Racketeering and Bribery Charges in Connection with Alleged Corruption Schemes | United States Department of Justice 30 May 2019 www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/city-chicago-alderman-indicted-federal-racketeering-and-bribery-charges-connection
PIN Details | 17-07-404-010-0000 | CHGO TEACH UNION FOUND | 1923 W CARROLL AVE | Cook County Assessor’s Office www.cookcountyassessor.com/pin/17074040110000
Team Bios Archive. Chicago Teachers Union Foundation, www.ctuf.org/about/leadership-team
PIN Details | 17-07-404-010-0000 | 1923 W CARROLL AVE | Cook County Assessor’s Office www.cookcountyassessor.com/pin/17074040110000
Quinn Appoints Burkes’ Daughter to $117,000-a-Year Post. Chicago Tribune www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-xpm-2011-07-27-chi-quinn-appoints-burkes-daughter-to-117000ayear-post-20110727-story.html
Quinn Appoints Burke’s Daughter to Pollution Control Board @ The Chicagoist chicagoist.com/2011/07/28/quinn_appoints_burkes_daughter_to_p.php
Team Bios Archive. Chicago Teachers Union Foundation, www.ctuf.org/about/leadership-team
Quinn Gives State Job to Daughter of Court Justice, Chicago Alderman. The State Journal-Registe, www.sj-r.com/story/news/2011/07/28/quinn-gives-state-job-to/43166338007
