Morgan Park family hit with 300% increase in property tax bill. What went wrong and how can it be fixed?

A Morgan Park family is still in shock after a staggering 300% spike in their latest property tax bill, and the man poised to take over as Cook County Assessor at the end of the year says it's an error he wants to make sure doesn't happen again.

"It completely takes away the stability of your budgeting and your ability to plan economically for the future," Robert Castle said of the massive tax bill he received at the end of last year.

Robert and his daughter, Whitney, explained their concerns for the future on the stoop of their 114-year-old Morgan Park home they've owned for more than 40 years.

They were expecting a bump on their nearly $7,000 property tax bill, but instead it jumped to nearly $24,000 in a single cycle.

"I mean, I thought it was absolutely insane. How could you go up 300%? Certainly, an increase like that was just incredibly shocking," Whitney said.

There have been no renovations, no additions, no transfer of ownership, or changes to the property at all. The two neighboring homes — both with no recent improvements or sales in over a decade — also received dramatic increases, although not quite as bad as the Castles.

"It turns your budgeting upside down, and the thing you worry about as well is, if it can happen to me this year, what's to prevent it from happening again in years to come?" Robert said.

Whitney said she reached out to CBS News Chicago about their situation "because people have to know this is what's going on."

The Cook County Assessor's Office did not respond to requests for comment, but Lyons Township Assessor Pat Hynes, who is poised to become the next Cook County Assessor after defeating Fritz Kaegi in last month's Democratic primary, called what happened to the Castles "unacceptable."

"Now the taxpayer is stuck with this outrageous bill that obviously doesn't match reality," he said.

Hynes said he dealt with a series of land assessment errors in Lyons Township in 2024. Previously, he worked as a field inspector for the Cook County Assessor's Office for 23 years until 2021, and he said the Morgan Park properties owned by Castle and his neighbors appear to have large spikes in the "land value" portion of their assessment.

"The county assessor did the assessment in 2021. The county assessor did the assessment in 2024. Obviously, the market did not go up 300% in three years. And so, there's an error when it doesn't follow the market," Hynes said.

Hynes said the Castles should absolutely pursue an appeal, which they already are doing. But Hynes says he'd also like to reinstate a specific Tech Review Department within the Cook County Assessor's office to check these kinds of outliers.

"You know, that audit function, really, it doesn't exist anymore, and really would be useful to sort of catch these kind of errors before they become the taxpayer's problem," Hynes said.

It's a problem this family is still hoping to solve.

"I think a 300% increase is just crazy, and there really should be limitations on how much of an increase can happen every single year, so that people can prepare for that," Whitney said.

The Castles were told they should hear a final word on their pending property tax appeal sometime this month.