Before vultures could consume vulnerable citizens’ properties in a tax sale, businessman Willie Wilson wrote a personal check totaling $150,000 to establish a property tax relief fund through the Cook County Treasurer’s office. (Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin also raised $8,000 for the fund.) It’s hard to imagine a more direct act of public service by most elected politicians which is probably why Wilson failed in his previous runs for office, including in several 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, as well as for mayor of Chicago in 2015.
