Assessor
July 23, 2026

Assessor Fritz Kaegi presented the mid-year budget update and reported on how the funds budgeted for the Assessor’s Office for the first six months of 2026 were spent. Chief of Staff Scott Smith provided details as requested.

• Within budget for 2026
• 2027 budget.  Push to maintain quality within budget.
• Received five awards at National Association of Counties (NACO) annual meeting in July 2026: for (1)reaching out to Chicago homeowners experiencing property tax hikes for assistance, (2) creating new kiosk & call back system to improve tax payer services, (3) creating new IT help desk, (4) creating talent internship program, and (5)creating data integrity department
• At NACO, with Maricopa County Assessor Eddie Cook, presented changes that since 2018 made making property tax system more transparent, fair and accessible.
• Reported that Prof. Chris Barry, University of Chicago found since 2018, previously under-assessed Gold Coast and over-assessed  low and middle-priced homes in Chicago have been corrected saving low and middle income homeowners $1.9 billion off their property tax bills.
• Says root causes of property tax increases for homeowners are commercial property tax reductions for data centers and for high-rise luxury apartment buildings.  
• New interactions with the Board of Review (BOR):  now using the same estimated tax rate for determining the assessment for commercial properties, and now appearing at BOR appeal hearings to defend Assessor’s assessment of properties
• Redesigned websites, forms with help from Literacy Work.  Available in multiple languages.
• Updated software PTaxSim to simulate changes in property tax with changes in types of properties and property features.
• 127 Outreach events, 23 focused on the south and west suburbs.

Information provided in response to Commissioner questions:

• Implementing recommendations of 2024 Commercial Valuation Report: 
• Assessor’s office valuations are closer to actual sales of properties than the BOR.  Needed to be in agreement on estimating tax rates for purposes of assessments of commercial properites.  Now will load “effective” tax rates for commercial properties since finding agreement with BOR.
• Meets with BOR every two weeks and weekly on tax bill schedules.
• Said there should be a sales ratio study annually in December, but this has not been received from the Cook County President’s Office since Dec 2024 and have not seen this for apartment buildings.
• NACO is asking for appraisal information from national mortgage database to improve accuracy of property description.
• Pending legislation in Illinois will help seniors by making “Senior Freeze Exemption” (SFE) auto-renewable.
• Working with IL Dept. of Revenue (IDOR) to check income and to update SFE when property sells; will send two notices to homeowner, and follow-up fall 2026.
• Using new vendor, Lexus Nexus, for better addressing data. Assessor receives info when SFE holder moves into “retirement” home.
• SFE income cap lifted in 2026 legislation beginning in 2027 from $65K, increasing on a phased-in basis to $79K .
• 23 staff bonuses (17  public facing) are bi-lingual English-Spanish certified and get monthly bonuses per County policy; also,  “pocket-talk” devices are in use for all languages.
• Neighborhood valuations increase due to local improvements, if existing home does not have improvements, homeowner must appeal.
• Attend outreach: more than one event is held per day.
• Use the data modelling online to help appeal.
• Support NACO’s. request for Fannie Mae data.
• Four different levels of appeal in Illinois: (1) Assessor’s Office: in closest contact with taxpayer, holds most property records; Appeals by homeowners w/o attorneys are 25-30% of total appeals and better outcomes than with attorneys; (2) BOR; (3) Illinois Property Tax Appeals Board (IPTAB): and/or (4)Circuit Court
• Reassessing commercial properties in suburbs depends on receipt of permits describing construction and improvements from local governing bodies.
• Says data Centers appeal to BOR and claim personal property or owned by a real estate company; If assessed lower than actual, puts burden on homeowner; have deep pockets to take appeal to IPTAB and court.
• Recommend Illinois Dept. of Professional Regulation (IDPR) be asked to prosecute appraisers who intentionally under-appraise Data Centers.
• Recommend County exert some control over whether property tax incentives are granted.
• BOR changed residential assessed values by approximately 1%.  BOR lowers taxes of commercial properties by 20-25%.  Hopes that agreement on estimating tax rates will help address this difference, along with other steps of sharing Assessor’s data and appearing at BOR appeals hearings to defend Assessor’s assessments. 
• Harvey and neighboring areas are nationally most over-assessed low-income homeowners and most vulnerable to state law changes. HB 1167 in Rules, would provide homestead relief to individual property homeowners.  Under-assessing commercial properties and school funding system in those areas has more impact.  As new housing is built in South Suburbs, existing homes without remodeling can be mistakenly assessed at higher values because of the new housing higher sales prices.  These homeowners need to appeal and attest that their homes are not updated and should therefore be assessed lower than the new construction in the area.

Treasurer
July 23, 2026

Dave Burns, Chief of Staff for the Treasurer, Maria Pappas presented the mid-year budget update and reported on how the funds for the Treasurer’s office for the first six months of 2026 were spent. 
2026 so far:

• $19.1 million overall: $18.4m is in the automation account, per County ordinance, is composed of fees collected from commercial and bulk payers, not general revenue.  No anticipated financial concerns for the remainder of 2026. Not expected to exceed amount budgeted in corporate account
• 9 vacant positions:  8 in the special purpose funds and 1 in the corporate fund.
• Revenue from late payers is trending higher: Revenue budgeted for 2026 is $35m.  However, thru June received $33.8m. Reason: Dec 2025-Apr2026 collected $14m for second installment due in fiscal 2025. 2026 total revenue is projected to be $47.4m.

2026 highlights:

• Working on full implementation of Tyler Integrated Property Tax System (IPTS)
• Treasurer’s office is at the end of the life cycle of property taxes. Dependent on other offices being on time with accurate data to Tyler. Treasurer examines and tests Tyler tax bill file, finds defect and corrects before sending to printer. Continuing to find defects in refunds and distributions.
• Treasurer’s IT staff is committed to a smooth hand-off from retiring IT employees, managing IT data changes, and returning to AI implementation and utilization after the IPTS is stable.
• July 10, Governor signed Property Tax Reform Bill updating the tax sale auction system.
• Scavenger Sale phased out. If property is not sold to private tax buyer, then tax certification is held by the County to either deed (sell) outright or to deed to another municipality or Not-For-Profit.
• Expect that 2025 2nd installment property tax bills will be online on the Treasurer’s web site by mid-August and mailed bills go out in late August.  Payments will be due then by October 1, 2026.

Observer:  Victoria Cerinich

Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee Meeting
June 10, 2026

Most of the meeting was an update to the Board of Commissioners and the public on the measures that are being undertaken to improve the processes and oversight within the Property Tax System. Comm. Britton requested that each office reporting not rehash the problems that are well known but provide information on how they are addressing the problems that have been previously identified and plagued the system for a long time. He asked that they limit their remarks to 10 minutes so Commissioners would have time for questions. (Agenda Item 26-1230 - Received and Filed)

Summary of presentations and questions:

• Office of the President - Jim Thompson, Director of Property Tax Policy - Stated that the lack of clear authority and lack of collaboration among the several offices involved in the process underlie the structural problems of the system. He provided an outline/timeline of how the Assessor, the Board of Review (BOR), the Illinois Depart of Revenue (IDOR), the County Clerk, and the Treasurer are supposed to work together to determine what the tax should be, to provide for collection of the taxes, and then distribution of the money to the various bodies that are supported by the property taxes. He referred to the reform group that has been meeting with representatives from all the entities. They have been looking to determine changes that can be made. He also said that imposing a new computer system (Tyler) on top of the problems that already existed has been challenging as each entity has integrated the system on a different time line. Meetings with Tyler are now being held daily and work continues to fix the system.
• Assessor - Fritz Kaegi - He stated that each part of the system depends on others doing their work so that deadlines can be met. His office is now sharing methodology on tax rates with the BOR so that is going more smoothly. Once his office receives the information from the BOR (revised assessments and certificates of error - see the presentation from the BOR below) and enters the information into the Tyler system, the Assessor’s office sends information to IDOR. This year his office still had to do manual reconciliation of the data to be sent to IDOR, but next year all data should be in the Tyler system so manual reconciliation will not be required. When asked, he said the process is 1 1/2 to 2 months behind schedule this year. Data was sent to IDOR on June 10 so it can calculate the multiplier and then that information comes back to the Assessor before he can send everything on to the Clerk. The IDOR process usually takes from 7-10 days. Comm. Degnan asked how many problems (defects) remain in the Tyler system for the Assessor’s office. Mr. Kaegi stated that the office is 95% working within the Tyler system. Tom Lynch from the Cook County Department of Technology stated that the Assessor part of Tyler has been working okay - it is the tax administration functionality phase that is still being worked on. 
• Board of Review - William O’Shields, Chief Deputy Commissioner, Commissioners Steele and Cardenas – The BOR does not create an assessment - it reviews appeals of an assessment. The BOR also reviews certificates of error. The BOR is the first transfer of information after the Assessor. The appeal process allows for oral arguments and the decisions are to correct errors in the initial assessment.   The BOR sends the corrected assessments to the Assessor’s office for entry into the property tax system.   Comm. Cardenas stated that they are working to reduce the time frame for reviews and working more closely with the Assessor to align their approach. Comm. Steele stated that the BOR has 3 individual offices. each with their own staff of about 40 persons. Each office needs to hear every appeal. There were no questions from the Commissioners. 
• County Clerk – Chief Deputy Clerk Cedric Giles  - That office deals with tax rates and it is fully using the Tyler system. The office applies the tax rates to the information from the Assessor and that process takes about 16-20 days to complete. That office also manages the redemption payments after the tax sale and this process is still not fully functional on Tyler. 
• Treasurer - David Byrnes, Chief of Staff - Began by reading a letter from Treasurer Maria Pappas. Comm. Britton reminded him not to focus on the past but highlight what changes are being made to make the system work. Mr. Byrnes stated that 2500 tax bills from last year have still not been sent due to data issues in the Tyler system that still has an identified 214 defects (though not all of these are critical). Since those bills have not been sent, the tax income has not been determined and thus cannot be distributed. The 2500 that have not been sent are scattered throughout the County and there are 6-7 defects that are holding them up. Mark Hawkins from Tyler stated that last year the first set of bills was done still on the mainframe computer and the second was sent on Tyler. Part of the problem holding up the bills from last year was that there were inconsistencies between the data in the two systems.  This year everything is being done through Tyler so the data problem should not continue. 
• The latest date for the termination of the mainframe is now July 31, 2026. All offices are off the mainframe except for the Clerk’s office that still uses it for reference. The Assessor started using Tyler 3 years ago according to Tom Lynch (Chief Information Officer, Dept. of Technology). He also stated that all payments to Tyler are based on milestones being met. To maintain the mainframe costs about $7M/year and the hardware is so old it is no longer available and all employees who worked on it are now retired. Comm. Degnan pressed Tom Lynch to estimate the cost for all the problems that have occurred with the tax system and his estimate was about $20M. 

Prior to these presentations,

• Meeting began with Public Speakers that included Priscilla Mims speaking on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Cook County asking the Commissioners to encourage the local election authorities to provide a way for voters to submit their Vote-by-Mail Ballots at their local precincts on election day. In addition, there were 2 other speakers addressing Voting Rights; 8 speakers from entities that have not received their tax distributions for the year and asking that the tax system be fixed; and 4 other speakers making general comments. 
• An amendment to the ordinance about the process for filling vaccines of some of the separately elected County Offices was approved by the committee without comment. (26-1414) 
• A resolution calling for a hearing on Voting Rights was not discussed. (26-1409)

Observer:  Cynthia Schilsky

Cook County Board Finance Committee Mid-Year Budget Hearing
July 29, 2024

Bureau of Finance Overview

• A bond ratings upgrade for the County was announced for the third time in 3 years. 
• Total FY 2024 budget is $9.26 B. 
• The FY 2024 the General Fund is expected to end the year with a $142M net favorable variance.
• For the preliminary look for FY 2025, the projected budget gap is currently $218M.  That gap will be eliminated by the time the President submits the proposed Executive Budget in October. 
• For the Health Enterprise Fund, a $224.6M positive variance at the end of this fiscal year is expected due to higher County Care enrollment membership, patient fees, improved collection strategies and increased patient volume. Patient fee revenue increased by $22M due to increased Medicare reimbursement rates and improved follow-up on payment rejections. The 2025 budget  forecast is balanced. Membership in CountyCare is expected to stabilize.
• Cook County Deputy Chief Financial Officer  Dean Constantinou noted a $1.18M increase in sales tax revenue (1.8%). Rising interest rates allows investment income to be 20% above expected and are projected to stabilize for 2025.  After 2025, expenses are expected to grow higher than revenues. In response to a question about mitigating the results of investments that are variable, Constantinou stated that they do revenue forecasting and look for alternative investment revenue, and that it would make sense to look at less sensitive investments.
• Cook County received $1B in community outreach and recovery funds from the federal ARPA. CFO Tanya Anthony reported 74% have been obligated to date with 34% of those expended. Anthony stated they are working  to ensure all monies are obligated by the end of the year which is the federal deadline.. Anthony also stated they have capacity to make changes if plans are not working.  If deadlines or benchmarks for obligations are not being met, the County contacts programs to determine what is to happen, what contingency plans exist, and what controls already have been approved to put more money if need is indicated. In response to a question from Com. Anaya, CFO Anthony stated they feel comfortable with the support received from the hired consultant to help administer the ARPA grants.
• Anthony provided a review of the AARPA Fiscal Sustainability Framework to continue projects into the future; its components are policy alignment, fiscal sustainability (long term), program evaluations, and community engagement.  A sustainability model has been developed to continue funding selected programs after 2026 when the ARPA monies run out. Com Lowry asked how funding would be secured for programs. Part of the answer is that grant optimization research is being done. It is expected that some projects will be absorbed into the County budget. The County has already begun putting excess dollars from prior years into a special fund to help continue some projects.Com. Daley stated several times that Commissioners need to remember funding requests will be coming to them in the future. In response to a question about what proposed programs could not be funded, CFO Anthony stated the focus is on what can be sustained, proceeding with that.

Lynetta Haynes Turner, Office of President, Chief of Staff 

• Haynes-Turner stated FY 2024 continues the road to economic recovery, the budget has a manageable deficit, and was done without increasing residential property taxes.
• The challenge for the Bureau of Human Resources to fill vacancies continues and is reflective of the situation nationwide, but there is progress with filling openings in Cook County. 
• She stated $382M in medical debt was eliminated, impacting 220,000 Cook County residents in County Care. She also stated a centralized data system was being developed for property tax information to be shared across all county agencies; it is on track for all participating offices to be off the main frame and on this system by end of 2024. Regarding questions on property taxes, Turner stated Commissioners were welcome to ask many stakeholders to help address the many issues around them.  Com Daley stated leaders in Springfield must come together on this. 

Commissioners Question for Offices of the President

• A frequent question from various Commissioners concerned the hiring process—how many vacancies were there, how long is the hiring cycle.   The departments and Offices reported that their vacancies have reduced over the year.
• Commissioner Degnen recommended that the Office of Innovation hire at least 3 trained Industrial Engineers to address process improvement.  She believes their specific training would be helpful. The department use to have 3 and now only has 1.   Lynetta Haynes Turner said that the departments keep many metrics that they don’t report to the dashboard.  
• Commissioner Degnen asked the Bureau of Technology what the status was for the Tyler installation.   They are behind.  They hoped to be testing end to end but are still testing in each department separately.  They still hope to test end to end by the end of this fiscal year.   The testing does not include BOR.   They will continue to use an interface.
• Commissioner Gainer asked the Finance bureau to put together a dashboard that would consolidate revenue and expenses, that would be helpful to the Commissioners to know the financial status of the County.
• Commissioner Lowry addressed the continuation of some ARPA projects such as Guaranteed Income which he sees as being very beneficial.   The University of Chicago is conducting a study of that program to   track its benefits.
• Commissioner Gordon asked how is the Finance office monitoring “non-profit gang banging”-when groups get money but then don’t provide any accounting of their efforts. There are  grant monitoring teams.  The Office also tries  to have all the grantees work together in a community and hold each other accountable.   
• Comm. Gordon also questioned the Transportation Department about the large deficit the regions public transit agencies have.  Sis Killian said that President Preckwinkle believes an integrated system would be best and they are looking at various coordination options.
• Commissioner Quezada asked the Technology Department how they are preparing for AI.  There are working groups addressing how it can be used in operations and how private data can be protected.

Office of the Public Administration

• No discussion

Cook County Assessor
     The conversation focused on how property taxes could be reduced in Cook County and what help could be given home owners.  Assessor Kaegi’s office is providing information to various agencies and groups and to individual residents about the eligibility for various exemptions and how to apply. His office sends a list to Commissioners of people in their district that are eligible for exemptions but have not applied.   He is working with the State to make the senior freeze auto renew.   He cautioned that the expansion of exemptions pushes the tax burden onto other residents.
He has three proposals to help people pay their   property tax.  All require action by the State Legislature.

1. Illinois should fund again the  Circuit Breaker program. It would provide grants to eligible seniors and persons with disabilities to help them reduce the costs of property taxes, license plate renewals and rides on public transit.  The State stopped funding the program in 2013.
2. The State should streamline the process for the homeowner exemption.
3. TIF regulations should be changed to allow TIF excess funds to go to home owners for tax relief.

Commissioner Degnen said Cook County should be looking at ways to decrease expenses in general and decrease the dependency on property taxes to fund government.
Commissioner Quezada said that a third party should be hired to examine who is accurate in their valuations—the Assessor or the Board of Review. Mr. Kaegi said that such a contract is currently going through the procurement process.  It would hire the International Association of Assessment Officers to evaluate the last 4 years.

Land Bank Authority

• The Commissioners were complementary of the Office.   It has  brought in 500 developers to build in underserved areas.

Clerk of the Circuit Court

• Commissioner Aguilar asked about the complaints that there are not enough court clerks and that impedes trials.   The Clerk has instituted new personnel policies that collapse titles and cross train clerks so that they can service different courts.  They also have improved hiring and have 530 court clerks for 357 court rooms.

Observers - Carolyn Cosentino and Kathi Graffam

Cook County Board of Commissioners (CCBC) Meeting
February 9, 2023

Board Action:

• CCBC approved resolution from the Technology and Innovation Committee for Cost Comparison Assessment and Action Plan from Bureau of Technology and Board of Review on Technology Software. This will provide a comparison to calculate cost to County of creating an integrated automation platform technology to transfer data. The written report of cost comparison will describe and prepare an action plan based on the report’s results.  Report is due within 90 days of enactment of resolution. Several Board members commented on the discussion in committee and that members recognized it could be helpful in resolving a long-time issue. Com. Degnan noted that extra time could be provided should Bd of Review require it (23-1174). Approved.
• Cook County Covid-019 Response Financial Report passed to Receive and File.  The report serves as an update on Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF), FEMA PA, Emergency Rental Assistance, and American Rescue Plan Act Grant allocations, 3/1/2020-1/20/2023.  Per the Report, the County’s CARES Act allocation is 100% expended with final report delivered to US Treasury last month. (23-1268) 
• Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income Pilot Status Update passed to Receive and File. Potential participants were evaluated and interviewed for eligibility and a lottery was used to select the 3250 persons participating.  Surveys of participants, data collection, and update reports will continue for this 24-month pilot program. (23-0469)
• Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways reported on projects including an intergovernmental agreement with Metra for improvements to Chicago State University Metra station. County will reimburse Metra for its share of construction and construction management costs. Both items referred to the Transportation Committee. (23-1063, 23-1074)

Of Interest:

• Resolution honoring Jesse White was deferred. (23-0992)

Observer - Carolyn Cosention

Cook County Board of Commissioners - Committee and Board Meetings
​July 27, 28, 2022

Finance Committee   July 27, 2022

• The Commissioners recommended for approval an  ordinance  that authorizes the County to give loans to local government entities that are impacted by the expected late property tax bill issuance and collection.   The plan would set aside up to $ 500 million, but initially $300 million will be distributed.    The loans would go to municipalities that have credit ratings less than the County’s and would have difficulty going to the public for credit.  It would be for 0% rate.  It will cost the County $5 million.   The Commissioners had met previously with members of the Finance group and so there was little discussion.  (Item 22-3521)   The ordinance was approved in the Board Meeting.
• Commissioner Suffredin moved to defer the proposed Elected Official Compensation Review Ordinance. This would require periodic review of the compensation of elected officials.  The Commissioners are waiting on a fiscal note from the Department of Finance.  The League of Women Voters of Cook County  (LWVCC) supported this ordinance, and their letter was entered into the record.  (Item 22-3931)  

Health and Hospitals Committee  July 27, 2022

• The monthly report on the status of COVID was deferred.  The Commissioners asked for an update on Monkeypox as well as COVID. Mr. Rocha, Cook County Health (CCH) CEO said that 70% of the current COVID cases are the new sub-variants BA4 and BA5.  The CCH is recommending that everyone gets the booster shots and wear masks when in close contact of others.  There are 5 community centers in suburban Cook County where residents can get vaccines or treatment.  Over 1 million vaccinations have been given.  Vaccination rates for children are low, for children under 5 less than 15%.   Parents are reluctant to have their child vaccinated.  ( Item 21-0541)  
• The Commissioners asked for an update on Monkeypox as some of them have gotten reports of residents not being able to get vaccinations.  Dr. Hasberg reported that it is now called MPV.   The CCH is following the CDC’s recommendations. The CCH has launched an education campaign to health providers and have updated their website with information.  They are doing testing and providing vaccinations.  They are also doing contact tracing. There have been 19 confirmed cases in Cook County.  People who have had close contact with a confirmed case can get vaccinated now.   150 have been given.  They have just started vaccinating people in high- risk groups, but who did not have  known contact.   They anticipate getting more vaccinations in the fall and then will ramp up the vaccinations to that demographic.  At the Board meeting a resolution was approved to have a meeting with CCH specifically on MPV. (Item 22-4699)
• The Commissioners approved the quarterly report from CCH.  Dr. Ruben reported on the contact tracing program for Covid.    In order to reach communities that had low vaccination rates and reluctance to participate in contact tracing, the CCH developed a network of community- based organizations to engage people.     They anticipate that they will use the same network in their efforts for equity, trying to encourage residents to use medical resources for chronic diseases. (Item 22-1354)
• The semi- annual report on healthcare disparities was received and filed.  Mr. Rocha outlined CCH’s plan to reduce healthcare disparities in minority areas.  He cited the primary issues of poverty and lack of health insurance in the South and Near West side communities.  They have awarded grants to community groups to work on such issues as worker protections, lead poison prevention, connecting people to resources, and improved public transportation.  The other major issue they want to investigate is why some people don’t utilize the medical system even when it is easily accessible. (Item 22-3674)
• Commissioner Miller asked that going forward, she would like to see specific data for outcomes for minorities in the 11 strategic communities cited in the 2025 Strategic Plan.  She also wanted to see data for minorities that do not live in underserved communities. 

Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting July 28, 2022

• Several Commissioners spoke in support of the resolution for the Cook County Board to call on the Illinois General Assembly and U.S. Congress to prohibit the sale of assault style weapons.  The resolution was approved.  (Item22-4305)
• The proposed County Commissioner vacancy in office ordinance amendments were referred to the Legislation Committee. This provides that a vacancy should be filled by appointment by a political committee unless the vacancy is for more than 28 months and then it should be filled at the next general election.   LWVCC is in support of this amendment.  (Items 22-4661, 22-4662)
• The resolution to hold a hearing on the risks of data sharing with ICE was approved.  The object is to determine if County government data regarding residents is available to private data brokers. The Committee will also discuss the best practices for protecting the rights of all Cook County residents. (Item 22-2815)
• Several collective bargaining agreements with Cook County employees were approved.  During the public speakers’ time, nurses from the CCH system spoke in favor of approval.  
• Several more ARPA grants were awarded including funds for the Forest Preserve.

Observed by Kathi Graffam