Mansion Church Didn't Have a Prayer
Judge rules that Lake Bluff man must pay property taxes
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The "reverand" claimed his brother brought some guys over to the Lake Bluff mansion for services every now and then.
No one would feel that good about paying an $80,000 a year property tax bill, and Chicago banker and realtor George Michael sure didn't.
Michael lives in a beautiful $3 million mansion in Lake Bluff. He thought he had a foolproof plan for avoiding the tax costs connected to his luxury home, and, for a while, it looked like it was working.
See, Michael went online and became a minister. Then he claimed his home wasn't really a residence, but rather a church, and therefore exempt from the property tax burden.
The Chicago Tribune reported in July 2008, that Michael "told officials he began holding services in 2006 because his wife has a physical disability that makes it difficult to travel to a Chicago church they previously attended."
The Trib's John Kass writes Wednesday that "some goofball" at the the Illinois Department of Revenue took the bait, issuing "preliminary tax-expemt status" to Michael.
Well, all good things must come to an end, right? In fact, the gig's up for Michael, as an "independent state administrative law judge working for the Department of Revenue, called the whole thing a farce and reversed the exemption."
Kass' perspective on the story only adds to the outrageousness of "The Church of a Couple of Guys." A reference to a sexual harassment case brought against the wealthy banker by a woman who worked with him at Citizens Bank & Trust.
"Michael's humbe nature was revealed," Kass says, in documents related to the case in which the woman claimed Michael "wanted to lick [her] like an ice cream cone."
It begs the question, Kass says: Do they have ice cream socials at the Church of a Couple of Guys?
Posted Wednesday, Jul 22, 2009 - 7:23 AM CST
