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| Cookson, Kellie |
| Office Manager |
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| kellie@iltaxwatch.org |
Kellie Cookson has worked as Executive Secretary for the Taxpayers' Federation since December 1994. She was assigned Office Manager in October of 2007. Her primary duties are website maintenance, membership billing, publications and general office duties.
Prior to that, she was an MLS secretary / receptionist at the Springfield Association of Realtors.
She and husband, Rodger, their two sons and daughter reside in Springfield. |
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| Eldridge, David |
| Legislative Director |
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| david@iltaxwatch.org |
David P. Eldridge has been appointed Legislative Director of the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois (“TFI”). His duties began January 1, 2007.
David most recently has served as Assistant Counsel to Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan. As a member of the speaker’s technical review staff, he served as Parliamentarian and Chief Counsel to Executive, Elections, and Veterans Affairs Committees. David drafted and negotiated several significant pieces of legislation involving such topics as predatory lending, payday lending, elections, CPA reform, and medical malpractice. David’s responsibilities also included answering ethics questions, handling administrative matters for Representatives, responding to FOIA requests, and handling special projects for House Leadership.
Before joining the Speaker’s staff, David practiced law in Mississippi. His practice focused on constitutional, governmental, and commercial issues and he served as a Special Counsel to the Mississippi Standing Joint Congressional Redistricting Committee. He also served as a judicial law clerk to a Mississippi Supreme Court Justice.
David is a Lieutenant in the Reserves of the United States Navy. David is licensed to practice law in Illinois, Mississippi, and the District of Columbia. He received a BS degree in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a JD degree from Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana.
David is a native of Illinois and currently resides in Springfield with his wife, Sara, and daughter, Louisa. |
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| Flanders, Courtney |
| Office Assistant |
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| courtney@iltaxwatch.org |
| Courtney Flanders joined the Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois in August 2007. Her main duties are meeting planning, and general office duties. She resides in Petersburg with her husband and three sons. |
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| Johnson, Tom |
| President |
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| tom@iltaxwatch.org |
J. Thomas Johnson, President, before joining TFI, was responsible for the planning and delivery of all state and local tax services to clients of the firm of KPMG in the Chicago market place. Before joining KPMG, Mr. Johnson served as the National Director of State and Local Taxes for Grant Thornton. Before entering the public accounting industry, Mr. Johnson was the Director of Revenue for the State of Illinois from 1980 to 1987. He served as President of the National Association of Tax Administrators, now known as the Federation of Tax Administrators. As a result, he is knowledgeable of the tax structures and tax agencies of the fifty states and has developed professional working relationships with key tax officials throughout the country.
Mr. Johnson served on President Reagan’s Task Force on Worldwide Unitary Taxation and is widely credited for developing the “Illinois method” of attributing corporate income for multistate tax purposes. He is considered a national expert in the area of multistate taxation. He also served as the Director of the former Illinois Department of Local Government Affairs. This agency was responsible for overseeing the state’s administration of real and personal property taxation before this function was transferred to the Department of Revenue. The agency also provided financial, management, and community development assistance to Illinois’ 6,500 units of local government.
Mr. Johnson’ s knowledge and experience makes him a specialist in all aspects of state and local taxes, including business registration, income and franchise, sales and use, excise, employment related, and real and personal property taxes; plus, his involvement in legislative deliberations regarding Illinois’ state and local tax structure makes him an expert in Illinois’ tax system.
He is a regular speaker at numerous state and national seminars and conferences. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois and the Board of Directors of the Civic Federation of Chicago; Chairman of the Tax Committee of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce; a member of the Tax Committee of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce; the Director’s Advisory Board of the Illinois Department of Revenue; and, the Regional Development Committee of the Metropolitan Planning Council. He has served as a member of the Advisory Boards of the Georgetown University Law School’s State and Local Tax Institute, the National Institute on State and Local Taxation, and on the AICPA and Illinois CPA Society’s State and Local Tax Committees. Mr. Johnson lives in Park Ridge with his wife Barbara Chasnoff and daughter Amy. His son Matthew is a student at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was born and raised in DeKalb County. Mr. Johnson received a BS degree in Accounting from Northern Illinois University. He is a registered Illinois’ Certified Public Accountant. |
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