Man Cries Discrimination After No Tax Break for His 'Church'

By Prescott Carlson in News on Aug 1, 2010 4:30PM

George Michael of north suburban Lake Bluff (not to be confused with this George Michael or this George Michael) thought he had something going when he slapped a cross on the side of his lakefront mansion, converted a racquetball court into a chapel and declared it a "church," which in his mind should save him almost $80,000 a year in property taxes as churches are generally tax exempt. Remarkably, the cash strapped Illinois Department of Revenue went ahead and gave Michael the OK for the exemption, but it was later reversed in July 2009 after the village filed a lawsuit.

Michael says all he was trying to do was provide a place for his wife, who has multiple sclerosis and has trouble getting around, and his disabled daughter a place to worship, not coming up with a tax dodge. Michael himself even went online and became an ordained minister.

Now the Chicago Tribune reports that Michael isn't giving up the fight easily -- he's recently filed a lawsuit claiming that village and state officials are discriminating against him because he's Armenian, telling the Trib, "I don't think they want anything other than Anglo-Saxons in Lake Bluff." Michael is suing for over $10 million. The suit "alleges a cabal of village officials colluded to quash the tax exemption and close the church." Village attorney Peter Friedman was quoted as saying the "accusations have no merit," and that Michael creating the church was an "inappropriate attempt to escape the same property tax responsibilities that every other property owner in Lake Bluff is required to comply with."

Michael's property tax troubles isn't his only financial headache -- him and his brothers had ran Citizens Bank & Trust, which in April was seized by the feds along with a number of other banks, including Broadway Bank, the bank owned by the family of U.S. Senate hopeful Alexi Giannoulias.