This issue originated on a conservative blog called Illinois Review where the editor, Fran Eaton, posted the information shown in this original post. Amost immediately, a variety of peopl began posting comments correcting her error. However, she kept deleting those comments and accused "liberals" of posting lies. Among the commentors deleted was a representative from the Chicago Board of Assessors who wrote:
:Your posting about Rahm Emanuel’s house being tax exempt is wholly inaccurate. Rep. Emanuel’s house is on the tax rolls, and he and Ms. Rule have paid the taxes on it.
The Emanuel house sits on two lots. For tax purposes, the property is listed as 4232 N. Hermitage Ave. The PIN is 14-18-408-035-0000. As you can see, 4232 N. Hermitage came up as one of the addresses when you searched Emanuel’s block on our web site.
4228 N. Hermitage is listed as the mailing address on the tax records. Had you taken the trouble to contact the Assessor’s office, we could have told you that — and told you that it is not at all uncommon for addresses to be merged for properties on two lots.
According to the Cook County Treasurer’s web site, Emanuel and his wife paid $13,022.60 in property taxes this year."
After a few days of this, Ms Eaton finally replaced her post with a separate story attacking liberals. She never posted a retraction and has deleted all comments questioning the story and finally disabled the comment function on her blog. Before she did this, however, other conservative blogs and an XM radio story picked up her claims and have continued to pass them on as fact. A description of the evolution of this story is at http://illinoisreason.wordpress.com/...f-a-con-smear/
The story dates back to last November, but lies have long legs.