If you view the political contest between the Cook County assessor and the Board of Review over tax bills as we do hockey games, we just finished the second of three periods.

At first there were whispers that the second installment of the Cook County property tax bills might not be out until early next year. Then it became a verbal sparring match over whether they would be out before the November election.

Assessor James M. Houlihan vowed his office would finish its share of the work by May 7, which would be late, but in time for the bills to be out in October. In fact, Houlihan finished up by April 29. The Board of Review had said in a letter in March they'd need two-and-a-half to three months to finish up, which would be July 29. So June 29 was the end of the second period.

Where do we stand after two periods?

It's hard to say which side can claim to be closer to a word-war victory. There are 30 suburban townships and eight in the city. As of last week, the Board of Review had returned 11 completed townships to the assessor's office: Lake View, Rogers Park, Evanston, Norwood Park, Berwyn, Bremen, Cicero, Oak Park, Palos, River Forest and Riverside.This week, they added three more. So the Board of Review has 24 townships to go in the final period.

There are political overtones because Houlihan is retiring and Board of Review Commissioner Joseph Berrios is running for Houlihan's job.

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