Homeowners hit hardest again in Cook County property tax bills, treasurer's office says

Cook County homeowners are again facing a sharper increase in property taxes this year than businesses, the Office of Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas announced Monday.

This also marks the 32nd consecutive annual increase in property taxes in Cook County.

According to Pappas' latest bill analysis, local governments countywide are seeking $743.8 million in new taxes — bringing the total that property owners must pay to more than $19.9 billion, or an increase of about 3.9%.

The annual regional rate of inflation is only 3.1%, Pappas' office said.

In the past 30 years, tax increases have pushed up the total tab for property taxes by $12.9 billion, or 184%, Pappas' office said.

"Over the last 30 years, if you went to buy bread or eggs, it went up roughly 80%. But if you go to your mailbox, and you go online to CookCountyTreasurer.com and you look up your bill, it's up 180%," Pappas said on CBS News Chicago Monday morning. "So it's up twice that amount."  

This is all the result of local governments such as cities, villages, park districts, school districts, and Cook County itself keeping on asking for more money and placing the burden on property owners, Pappas' office said.

"Every one of these governments has elected officials, so of these 740 governments, all in Cook County, 641, or 85%, went to the clerk's office and said, 'You know what? We're going to raise it this year. We're going to raise it," said Pappas. "So if every government keeps raising the amount of the taxes, and they get raised over the rate of inflation every year, what you get is the cumulative effect of right now, an increase of $755 million countywide."

This year, homeowners are paying 80% of the value of the tax increase, or $593.4 million, Pappas' office said. Owners of commercial buildings, industrial facilities, multi-unit buildings, and vacant land are picking up the rest, Pappas' office said.

This is the fifth year in a row that the increased tax burden has fallen mostly on homeowners, as commercial property values have declined or grown at a much smaller pace than those for homes, Pappas' office said.

"Walk down State Street, OK? Walk down Michigan Avenue. How many buildings are empty? Well, if all the buildings, all the commercial buildings, everybody's moving out, their taxes go down — who picks it up? The residences in Olympia Towers, and Water Tower, and 1040 Lake Shore Drive — everybody's picking it up," Pappas said. "It's no different in the suburbs, when you have people flying out of here because they feel like it's become a business-unfriendly environment, and they're moving to other states."

Pappas called for local governments to control spending, and for people to get out to vote.

"So there is, every year, something that nobody understands, which is if you have 80% of the people sitting at home, and don't get up, and don't get out, and don't vote, this is what you're going to get," she said.

The second installment of 2025 property tax bills are available online at cookcountytreasurer.com, and copies will be mailed out to all 1.8 million property owners in Cook County by Sept. 1. Bills are due by Oct. 1.

This is two months late. Due to continued problems with a technology upgrade that began in 2015, property tax bills in Cook County have repeatedly gone out late in recent years.

"The bugs aren't fixed," said Pappas. "We're still sitting on 80,000 checks totaling $200 million that we can't get out due to Tyler Technologies' difficulties."

But Pappas said the delay in the bill makes life easier for homeowners, who are not stuck worrying about property tax bills when they're busy sending their kids back to school, or to college with tuition, and want to hold onto the money.

However, the delay in sending out bills and collecting payments also has created cash flow problems for local governments that rely on property tax revenue to pay their bills. Cook County has set up a $300 million fund to provide no-interest loans to help local governments cover their costs while waiting for delayed payments from property tax collections.