By: Diane Benjamin
Below is a link to one of my all time favorite Pantagraph pictures In case you forgot or didn’t know, Judy Stearns was accused in 2011 of having multiple homestead exemptions because of rental properties she owns. Then Mayor Stockton tried his best to get her thrown off the Council, hiring 2 different lawyers at taxpayer expense.
It turns out hundreds of McLean County homeowners had multiple exemptions including at least one judge and one other Council member. If I can find the entire list, I will add it to this post. The Assessor’s Office has hopeful fixed the problems they had identifying where multiple exemptions existed.
A judge ruled Stearns eligible to serve. This pic was taken right after Stearns was sworn into office after winning her second term. Guess who wasn’t happy?
http://www.pantagraph.com/alderman-stearns/image_db9edcc7-ecb7-5fd2-9439-56ee0dcb97a6.html
I found it!
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Priceless!
A picture is worth a thousand words and yes, this one is priceless. It represents some of the Pantagraph’s better reporting, however the story itself and the controversy surrounding multiple homestead exemptions is the Pantagraph at its absolute worse. It is proof that they were doing all they could to dig up dirt on Judy to manufacture news all the while they have failed to look into other important city matters where there most definitely is corruption that continues to get a pass from the Pantagraph.
They never did report on the hundreds of others.