South Cook News

Former state Rep. Jeanne Ives is slated to address the issue of soaring property-tax rates in the South Suburbs in a town hall discussion set for March 23.

Ives, who served five years representing the 42nd District, will be joined as a co-host by Park Forest mayoral candidate Jonathan Vanderbilt at the Nathan Manilow Theater in Park Forest. Also on hand to address the crowd will be Mark Glennon, founder of fiscal policy website Wirepoints.com, and newspaper publisher Brian Timpone, owner of Local Government Information Services (LGIS), publisher of South Cook News.

In late 2018, LGIS examined data that revealed of 331 local suburbs, Park Forest easily had the highest effective property-tax rates at more than three times the state average of 2.31 percent on a home priced at $45,000, according to WalletHub.com.    

Wirepoints.com Founder Mark Glennon

“I was thrilled when Jonathan Vanderbilt contacted me to help arrange a town hall on property taxes in the South Suburbs," Ives said in a press release. "While property taxes are high all over the state, these communities have been hit extremely hard. I invited Mark Glennon and Brian Timpone because, in addition to being two of the more efficacious property-tax analysts in Illinois, they both grew up in the South Suburbs. They are each keenly aware and uniquely concerned about the decimation of communities like Park Forest that were once thriving.”

Timpone grew up in Olympia Fields, while Glennon, a former corporate attorney and venture capitalist, was raised in nearby Harvey.