By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

Chicago attorney Jay Paul Deratany last week filed papers to run against longtime incumbent Joseph Berrios for Cook County Board of Review.

The Board is a three-member panel with quasi-judicial powers that hears and decides taxpayer complaints on the value or exempt status of real property in Cook County.

Deratany, who is gay, has his own law practice and lives in Lincoln Park. He said he is running because property taxes have gotten out of hand in the county.

Deratany is running for the 2nd District post, roughly encompassing parts of Chicago’s Northwest and Southwest sides as well as parts of Evanston, Niles, Maine and Leyden Townships.

“I keep seeing in the press more and more taxes are planned,” Deratany said, adding that the new monies only seem to go towards increasing the county’s administrative bureaucracy.

Berrios is head of Cook County’s Democratic Party, and according to Deratany, he’s put his politics ahead of taxpayers wellbeing. At the same time, money for hospitals and other city services is being trimmed out of budgets.

According to Deratany, Cook County needs to stop “taxing the bottom (rung of taxpayers) and stop cutting (services) off the bottom as well.”

“I have friends who are finding it more and more difficult to stay in their homes, thanks to these taxes,” he added.

Deratany said he wants to ensure fair and easier hearings for taxpayers who have to appeal their assessments.

“I would love to take the lawyer factor out of the process, to make sure that every appeal that comes before the board is treated equally,” he said.

Deratany also said he would push for policies that would better distribute tax revenues for area schools, which are largely funded by property taxes.

“Right now, it’s almost like an apartheid system. The poorer areas get little money. I don’t mean to take money away from wealthier districts. I just want to see poorer ones get more resources,” Deratany said.

Deratany, who is supported by Cook County Assessor James Houlihan, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Cook County Comms. Forrest Claypool and Mike Quigley, said he doesn’t expect running as an openly gay candidate to significantly influence the message of his campaign.

Nevertheless, he said, “It’s about breaking barriers. The more we have good, solid gay people running, the less we’ll have this glass ceiling we’re all placed under. It’s about putting an honest decent person in office who wants to do the right things.”