Preckwinkle blames latest delay in Cook County property tax bills on "residual effects" of last year's delay

Four months after saying "it's a lock" that property tax bills would go out on time this year, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has announced second installment bills will be approximately two months late.

The county's biannual property tax bills have repeatedly been delayed in recent years due to problems with a technology upgrade handled by Texas-based Tyler Technologies.

In February, as she prepared to face Chicago Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) in the Democratic primary election, Preckwinkle said she knew upgrading the county's property tax system was going to be a challenge, but she underestimated just how significant it would be. Nonetheless, she said she's confident the problem has been solved once and for all.

"The hard work is now done. The system has been modernized. The tax bills are going out on time," she said in February. "It's a lock."

First installment bills went out in March, but on Tuesday, Preckwinkle's office announced second installment bills, which are typically sent out in July and due in August, will be delayed approximately two months.

"This is some very bad government," said Better Government Association President David Greising.

Preckwinkle's office blamed the delay on "residual effects" of delays for property tax bills that went out last year.

"It takes time for the system to catch up with itself. Last year, the delay was four months, and this year it's two months, so the property tax system has made progress," Preckwinkle spokeswoman Hannah Fierle said in a statement.

As for Preckwinkle's assertion in February that property tax bills going out on time was "a lock," Fierle said, "At the time, she was referring to the technical issues that had caused the delay last year. 

"This year, we don't have the technical problems, but there has been a domino effect in how the system catches up with itself. At the time she spoke about it, that was an unknown," Fierle said.

Preckwinkle's team first tackled the out-of-date property tax system by hiring Tyler Technologies under a $30 million dollar contract to upgrade the county's property tax system. It was initially expected to take three years, but problems have persisted.

"You have a vendor you've been working with for years and years and years, and who is not doing their job, and the fact that we're still unaware of exactly what has gone wrong, and what the path is to getting it fixed, that's a total lack of transparency, and a lack of accountability," Greising said. "Taxpayers should be upset."

Last year, second installment bills did not go out until November, and were due in December. That prompted the county to push back this year's first installment bills by one month to give taxpayers more time between bills.

"It feels exactly like Groundhog Day. It seems like every year we go through a tax delay," said Amy Franco, executive director of the Hillside Public Library.

In Cook County, approximately 90% of public library and public school budgets come from property taxes.

Preckwinkle's team is offering $300 million in no-interest loans to help local governments cover their costs while waiting for delayed payments from property tax collections, which Franco appreciates.

"But we also know that this is not a substitute for timely tax disbursements, and so we urge them to work with Tyler Technologies to get this contract back on track," Franco said.

For libraries that last year went ten months without property tax revenue, this chapter of county government is a story still being written.

"We were hoping it was done. I don't think there's light at the end of the tunnel, unfortunately," Franco said.

Greising said he's surprised Preckwinkle hasn't faced more political blowback from the repeated delays with property tax bills. She easily defeated Reilly in the Democratic primary this year, despite his repeated criticisms of her management of the property tax system.

Preckwinkle's office declined requests for an interview on Wednesday.

Greising said the problem is a blot on her legacy in the same way selling the city's parking meters were for former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, and the murder of Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer was for former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.