Pappas steps up efforts to alert taxpayers to cash they didn't know they had coming
Sneed on Sunday ...
Ka-ching, no bling!
It comes in dribs, drabs and sometimes torrents: uncollected Cook County property tax refunds and senior tax exemptions stewing in the bowels of Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas’ office.
“Trust me … no easy job in returning this money,” said Pappas, whose office has succeeded in returning about $1 billion in property tax overpayments since she took office in 1998.
The quest to alert taxpayers to cash they don’t know they have coming was put on an even hotter burner following the COVID-19 pandemic. Pappas hit the WVON radio airwaves one day a week to get the message out to seniors in the Black and Latino communities that they can only file for missed property tax exemptions going back four years.
“So many seniors were unable to check it out because they couldn’t speak or read English well,” added Pappas. “So, we began printing up explanatory brochures in 27 languages.”
Pappas is known for her eye-popping colorful jackets and ability to twirl a mean baton. But she is also an attorney with a doctorate in counseling and psychology.
“It is so humbling to have people come up to you who received mostly humble tax refunds — and thank you for now being able to fix their roof or buy a new sink or lawnmower … or even a little vacation,” said Pappas, a Greek-American who grew in the poverty belt of West Virginia.
“I may be a lawyer, but I feel my doctorate degree helped me understand how the city’s ethnic traditions could be used to push our refund project forward to deliver this non-taxable money,” added Pappas, who began peppering her daily schedule with numerous ethnic events including the Bulgarian, German, Romanian and Polish communities.
Leave them smiling
So, the treasurer’s information tents and tables began popping up like Orville Redenbacher popcorn kernels the past two summers at events popular in the Black and Hispanic communities: the self-described World’s Largest Bar-B-Que and “stepping” dance events.
The BBQ was organized by Channel 7 TV cameraman Ken Bedford and the dance forums by DJ Sam Chatman, who came up with an updated version of the 1943 “Stepping” dance popular in the African American community.
Pappas provided taxpayers access to the property tax windfalls.
Last summer, 121 residents reaped $111,645 in previously unclaimed homeowners exemptions from a stepping forum at the Midway Plaisance in Hyde Park. And this summer, Pappas’ people attended two July events, the stepping forum in Hyde Park and an event in the south suburban forest preserves that combined the World’s Largest Bar-B-Que with plenty of stepping as well.
This summer’s haul for taxpayers: $141,294 in savings.
South Sider Dian Davney was one of them. While stepping out at the barbecue and dance party on July 14, she visited the treasurer’s tent. She was told she was due more than $2,100 for a missed senior citizen exemption on the family home she had inherited.
“I went to sleep that night with a smile on my face,” she told Sneed.
At the same event, Fredrick Thomas hit the jackpot, learning he was due $16,423.25; the largest single homeowner refund Pappas’ office found.
All together, the events from this summer and the summer of 2023 led to 346 taxpayers being awarded a total of $250,000 in refunds, according to Pappas' office's stats.
The recipe for politics?
Pappas’ outreach has won her fans across Chicago’s racial and ethnic communities.
“We love her,” said Lucja Kopec, president of the Alliance of Polish Clubs. “She is serious about our communities and appreciates our heritage and culture. She is part of us.”
Apparently. Chicago’s Dziennik Związkowy, the Polish Daily News, named Pappas “The Polish Person of the Year for 2021.”
A skilled chef, Pappas compared politics and government to the pressure cookers she uses to prepare meals.
“You just have to learn how to use them to get good results,” she said.
Ooopa!
Reelin’ it in
A final note on the life of former Illinois State Attorney General Tyrone “Ty” Fahner, once a member of U.S. Attorney Jim Thompson’s aerie of legal eagles, who died recently.
To wit: Fahner was once a member of a decades-old annual weeklong fishing club composed of fellow young lawyers. They were all just starting their careers in the early 1970, but they went on to become quite a bunch of boffo barristers.
The group? Former U.S. Attorney Dan K. Webb, former U.S. Attorney Tony Valukas, former assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Montana, Winston & Strawn partner Matt Lydon and Sam Skinner, who went on to serve as President George H.W. Bush’s chief of staff.
Imagine being in a boat close enough to hear — and record — those fish stories.
Sneedlings ...
Saturday birthdays: actor Karen Allen, 73; astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson, 66; actor Daniel Baldwin, 64; actor Guy Pearce, 57; actor Kate Winslett, 49; actor Jesse Eisenberg, 41. … Sunday birthdays: actor Britt Eckland, 82; actor Elizabeth Shue, 61; actor Emily Mortimer, 53 … and a belated shout out to former State Sen. Billy Marovitz, who celebrated his birthday at his own eatery, Carnivale, with crooner tunes and old pals.