House candidate received tax break for Illinois condo

Since moving back to Kansas from the Chicago area five years ago, Jeremy Alessi, a Wichita candidate for state representative, had received an Illinois residents-only tax break on a condominium that remained on the rolls as his primary residence until last month, officials said.

The “homeowner exemption” on his former home in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, Ill., had saved Alessi about $3,000 on his tax bills from 2010 through 2013, according to records obtained from the Cook County Assessor’s Office.

Alessi said he had been unintentionally receiving the homeowners exemption on property that he has been renting out. Cook County recently sent him a bill for back tax payments, which he said he has paid in full.

“It wasn’t something that I was willfully saying, ‘Please let me save on my taxes,’” he said. “Up until I got the bills in the mail, I was under the assumption we were current on the taxes.”

The assessor’s office confirmed that Alessi had been billed $3,704. An assessor’s official said the payment had not been posted yet but may be awaiting processing.

Alessi, an investment adviser, is the Republican nominee for state House of Representatives in the 92nd District, which represents parts of Riverside and northwest Wichita.

He is running against Rep. John Carmichael, an appointed incumbent who was selected to replace longtime Rep. Nile Dillmore when Dillmore retired last year.

To qualify for the Illinois homeowners’ exemption, “the home must be owner-occupied and be your primary place of residence,” said Maura Kownacki of the Cook County Assessor’s Office.

Alessi said he had not known that the Illinois condo was still listed on the tax rolls as the family’s primary residence.

Once established, the exemption renews itself from year to year without any action from the homeowner, as long as the property doesn’t change hands or the homeowner doesn’t cancel it, Kownacki said.

As a result, the exemption continued to apply to Alessi’s tax liability, even though he moved away from Illinois and has rented the property to a tenant.

The Illinois Legislature passed a law two years ago allowing assessors to go back and collect as much as six years in back taxes, plus interest and penalties, from property owners who were ineligible but benefited from the exemption.

Since then, Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios has been cracking down on improper exemptions and working to collect on millions of dollars in owed payments.

Alessi said the taxes on his former residence were paid through an escrow account and he didn’t know he was getting an exemption reserved for residents only.

“It’s the escrow company’s deal,” he said. “We weren’t receiving any kind of notification” that the condo was not eligible for exemption.

Alessi said he went to college on a football scholarship at Emporia State University and later moved to Illinois for work.

When he and his wife decided to return to Kansas, they tried to sell their condo, but couldn’t because of the recession and real estate crash of 2008-2009.

Alessi said they’re in the process of selling the home to their current tenant on a contract basis and have no intention of going back.

“I’ve been a proud resident of Riverside for the past half-decade,” he said.

This story was originally published October 19, 2014 at 11:34 AM with the headline "House candidate received tax break for Illinois condo."