Vallas: Record-high property tax increase is Preckwinkle’s reelection baggage

Record Cook County property tax hikes under Toni Preckwinkle expose a fundamentally broken system, benefitting insiders and costing everyone else.

As Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle heads toward another reelection campaign, county residents are being told help is on the way in the form of new property tax relief programs.

But these offerings barely touch a much larger problem: the county’s property tax system is deeply broken and unfair. Under Preckwinkle’s leadership, it has produced record tax hikes, growing inequities and a system that works better for government and politically connected interests than for homeowners, renters or small businesses.

Residential property tax bills in Cook County rose a record 16.7%. A recent report from Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas shows minority neighborhoods were hit hardest.

In West Garfield Park, the median homeowner tax bill jumped nearly $2,000 – an increase of 133%, the largest in the county. North Lawndale saw increases of nearly $1,900, or 99%. In Englewood, bills rose 82%.

These increases are driven by government’s insatiable appetite for more revenue. In 2024, the combined property tax levies of Chicago-area governments grew by $528.6 million, reaching $8.87 billion.

Chicago Public Schools accounted for nearly half that increase, raising its levy by $232 million to almost $4.25 billion. During the past two years alone, CPS property taxes rose $425 million – undercutting claims city leaders are “holding the line” on property taxes.

Tax increment financing has further fueled rising tax burdens. Originally intended to spur development in blighted areas, the districts generate roughly $1.8 billion annually from Cook County taxpayers, including $1.3 billion from Chicago.

While the districts capture increases in property value, taxing bodies raise their rates to ensure they still collect their full levies – effectively functioning as a backdoor property tax increase. Nowhere is this clearer than Chicago, where tax increment financing revenues provide schools with billions on top of their majority share of property tax collections.

After 15 years as county board president, Preckwinkle has also failed to reform the property tax appeals system. Large commercial property owners appeal far more often than homeowners and routinely secure large assessment reductions. Lower-income and minority homeowners appeal less frequently and receive smaller reductions when they do.

The appeals system has long been intertwined with powerful political figures who built lucrative practices on securing commercial tax cuts, including imprisoned former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and formerly imprisoned Chicago Alderman Ed Burke. Today, politically connected insiders with private tax appeals practices still profit from cases.

Preckwinkle has also failed to reform Cook County’s tax sale system, which a federal judge has said may leave the county responsible for paying property owners’ damages. Illinois is the last state still unlawfully stripping all equity from homeowners to settle often minor tax debts. Tax sale evictions disproportionately occur in majority-Black communities, with 73% of residents in the most affected ZIP codes identified as Black.

Compounding these failures is the disastrous rollout of Cook County’s new tax billing system, outsourced to politically connected Tyler Technologies. The system has cost taxpayers $265 million and remains riddled with errors. According to Treasurer Pappas, nearly $3 billion in collected taxes could not be properly distributed, and thousands of bills remain unresolved – yet the contract continues into its 10th year.

Now Preckwinkle is promoting token relief programs that offer little real help. The county’s Guaranteed Income Program provides $500 a month to just 3,250 residents out of more than 450,000 eligible households. The new Homeowners Relief Fund will distribute $1,000 grants to roughly 14,000 homeowners out of more than 1.2 million, while offering nothing to renters whose costs rise alongside property taxes. The funding comes from a $100 million windfall in late payment penalties.

Even Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi now calls for reforms to shield homeowners from dramatic tax hikes caused by his own assessment system. His proposed “circuit breaker” would apply only to a small fraction of taxpayers and merely delay increases for one year.

The reality is clear: Cook County’s property tax system rewards political insiders while forcing homeowners, renters and small businesses to pay more. Real reform means fairer assessments, overhauling the appeals process, fixing the tax billing system and scaling back tax increment financing districts that drive hidden tax increases.

A possible first step would be capping annual property tax increases on individual parcels at 5% for homeowners and small businesses. A cap would protect families from unpredictable spikes, reduce rent shock, curb displacement pressures and give communities time to pursue lasting reform.

Cook County voters must demand accountability from leaders who tolerate a system designed to benefit the connected at everyone else’s expense. Cook County’s property tax system is broken, and Toni Preckwinkle and her allies should not be allowed to keep it that way.