In highly unusual move, Lyons mayor takes $245k loan from campaign committee to pay personal tax liability

Lyons Mayor Chris Getty appears to be in more financial trouble, as recently disclosed paperwork shows he’s taken a $245,000 loan from his campaign fund — something state election regulators say they’ve never seen before — and that’s left Getty’s once-formidable political committee with relatively few dollars on hand.

The fund — Citizens for Christopher Getty, based at the same address as the mayor’s insurance business — doesn’t reveal why he needed to borrow more than 90% of his campaign fund’s cash.

“Loan made Christopher Getty” is all the latest disclosure report submitted Oct. 15 to the Illinois State Board of Elections says under the category of “purpose” and “beneficiary.”

But Getty’s campaign lawyer Burt Odelson, who doubles as the municipal attorney for the western suburb, says the loan was taken to pay off state and federal tax obligations stemming from Getty’s divorce case.

As the Chicago Sun-Times recently reported, Getty was hit with a federal tax lien this summer totaling $156,961.91 — with the IRS demanding he cough up that amount in federal income tax covering the 2023 tax year.

Getty said earlier this month that the lien had nothing to do with a federal investigation he was caught up in over the last few years — and wasn’t charged in.

“The divorce triggered the tax liability,” Getty explained at the time.

“I had to sell an asset,” which he declined to identify but that others identified as an investment in a suburban hotel/resort property. He said the sale “created a tax burden on myself.”

Within days of that conversation, his campaign fund filed its mandatory quarterly disclosure report, and the loan was listed.

Odelson said Getty tried to get a traditional loan but was unable. Records show his home has two mortgages on it.

Besides those two mortgages, his tax lien and the loan he got from his campaign, Getty pays $3,300 a month in alimony and child support.

Odelson said his own research, including consultation with a lawyer at the elections board, found the law doesn’t bar such a loan — though elections officials told the Sun-Times it’s highly unusual and may warrant further explanation from Getty.

“That is unusual,” said Matt Dietrich, spokesman for the elections board, a government agency overseeing campaigns and elections statewide. “I can’t recall ever seeing a committee loan any amount of money to the candidate. You can’t spend your campaign fund for personal expenses. I would see this as a personal expenditure. There’s no purpose listed.’’

Odelson said the loan went to pay off the federal tax debt, along with state taxes, all tied to the divorce.

“He’s a really good fundraiser, so it hurt him to take money out of his committee because money shows strength” to potential political opponents, Odelson said.

Records show that at the end of September, Getty’s committee had just under $20,000 on hand to spend, as well as $363,000 invested.

On Oct. 21, a political group tied to the powerful Operating Engineers Local 150 union led by Jim Sweeney, who sits on the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board, gave Getty’s campaign $1,000. A Burbank trucking company gave Getty another $1,000 on the same date.

Getty had been the campaign fund’s chairman and treasurer. He appointed a new treasurer — Getty’s ex-brother-in-law Kevin A. Thomas — a few days before he got the loan from the campaign fund. When asked about the loan, Thomas hung up on a reporter.

Odelson said the loan was formalized in writing, carries an interest rate of 4% or so and already has been paid down slightly, though there’s apparently no exact timeline for full payment.

Campaign funds generally are not supposed to be used for personal expenses, but state rules are notoriously lax on this point, and regulators have little teeth to crack down when that occurs.

The IRS has had better luck — as political figures that draw from their campaign funds to shore up their personal lifestyles would need to pay income tax on that money, or risk the heavy hand of the federal government.

State Sen. Napoleon Harris, a Flossmoor Democrat, recently paid back thousands of dollars to one of his campaign funds for treating it as a personal piggybank.

Getty was among the many targets of a federal investigation over the last five-plus years rooting out possible corruption by city and suburban elected and appointed officials — some of it relating to pay-to-play allegations with a red-light camera company. He was never charged, and has said he has been cleared of any suspicion.

Odelson said the stress brought by that probe — which included raids on Getty’s offices — led to the breakdown of Getty’s marriage.