The Cook County Assessor said the county's commercial businesses saw millions of dollars cut from their property tax bills this year, and the burden was shifted onto homeowners.

According to the assessor's office, the average homeowner is paying $700 more on their property tax bills because commercial properties like hotels, apartment buildings and data centers got their bills adjusted.

Cook County residents, many of whom are barely making ends meet, have been vocally frustrated by their rising property tax bills, which they said are hitting their wallets the hardest.

Meanwhile, commercial properties are getting millions of dollars in adjustments.

"It's half a billion dollars shifted onto Chicago homeowners," said Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi.

Kaegi was joined by South and West Side community leaders on Wednesday morning to call for relief for homeowners.

"For many other neighborhoods, the burden shift accounts for the majority of the tax bill increase," Kaegi said.

He described the break commercial properties are getting as a dinner bill in which homeowners are now forced to pay more than their share.

"We are all sharing the dinner bill here in Chicago," he said.

"It's on the back of the people who can least afford it," said Nedra Sims Fears of the Greater Chatham Initiative.

Fears said the rising bills are more than a stressor on the city's South Side — the unexpectedly high bills are pushing people out of their homes.

"We see people in our community lose their homes because they owe $2,000 to $3,000 in property taxes," she said.

So who is getting the break homeowners are paying for? The Cook County Board of Review cut $48 million in value from Trump Tower, $150 million from the Hyatt Regency, and $80 million from a data center near McCormick Place.

An analysis by the Assessor's Office found nearly 250,000 households across Cook County Have seen unsustainable tax bill increases in recent years.

In response, they're pushing for a bill in Springfield called the Circuit Breaker Bill, which would limit how much a homeowner's property tax bill can increase. It also uses credits to help those hit with spikes that saw their property tax rise more than 25% in a given year. But the bill doesn't require commercial properties to pay more; the money would come from the budget.

"It would have to be funded. It has to be funded by the state and county. Twenty-nine other states do this for their homeowners and taxpayers," said Kaegi.

Taxpayers have until Dec. 15 to receive an adjusted tax bill for any exemptions they may be missing, so now is the time to check.