WGN Reporter's Taxes In Hinsdale Unusually Low

HINSDALE, IL – WGN investigative reporter Ben Bradley is selling his Hinsdale house for $1.9 million.

The tax bill for the property is unusually low – $5,000 in 2020.

The Hinsdale property is owned by a land trust, which is often how famous people handle such transactions. Databases indicate Bradley lives in the house.

In 2010, records show that the land trust bought the three-story house from a builder for $1.4 million. The Cook County assessor now values the property at $231,000.

Before the transaction, the builder tore down the old one-story house on the property. Built in 1915, it was about one-seventh the size of its replacement.

It appears the Cook County Assessor's Office never took into account that a far more expensive house was built in the old house's place.

"When questions were raised, we immediately reached out to the Assessor’s Office and have heard nothing back. If, and when, they get back to me, I will of course pay the amount due… as I have always done in the past," Bradley said in an email to Patch.

He said Patch raised the questions and that he paid every amount he was billed.

"If the assessor wants to claim I owe something different, and that’s proven true, of course I’m going to pay," Bradley said. “We have never sought a lowering of our tax bill, and we have been repeatedly told it sometimes takes years in Cook County for the appraisals to catch-up.”

He added, "I’m not aware of any taxpayer who would walk into the County Building and say, 'I’d like to give you more money than you say I owe.'"

If the house is actually worth $1.9 million, the property taxes would amount to $40,000 a year. At $1.5 million, the taxes would be about $32,000.

This doesn't mean government bodies lost any money. It just means other taxpayers pick up the slack.

"The loser in this situation is the neighbor," Patrick Hynes, Lyons Township's assessor, said in an interview.

Just look at the houses on either side of the property. One house is worth $950,000, with a property tax bill of $19,000. The other is valued at $396,000, along with a tax bill of $8,200.

Hynes, who was elected assessor last year, said it was not unusual for the county assessor to miss a major change to a property. In recent years, the county office, where Hynes worked for 24 years, has become severely understaffed, he said.

As for the property on County Line Road, Hynes said, "It's quite possible that house hasn't had a human being from the County Assessor's Office physically inspect it since 1915."

County records show there has been no appeal of the county's assessment of the property.

"The taxpayer did not file an appeal because he's no dummy," Hynes said.

In Cook County, township assessors serve as taxpayers' advocates. They do not assess properties.

The county assessor's website appears to rely on information about the old house. It says the house is 880 square feet, far less than the 6,113 square feet listed in the advertisement. The assessor also says the house lacks central air conditioning, which the ad says it has.

The assessor indicates the house has one bathroom; the ad says it has 5½. The old house had no fireplaces; the new one has two.

Messages to the Cook County Assessor's Office were not returned.