A Cook County assessor’s report on 2019 property reassessments in the North and Northwest suburbs says efforts to improve taxpayer equity and fairness have been undone to some degree by Board of Review rulings on commercial property owners’ appeals.
Those properties have been underassessed by an average of 40% in past years, shifting more of the tax burden on to homeowners, the assessor’s office argues.
“A minority of people in Cook County use the appeals process, and this minority tends to have the most wealth, knowledge of the system’s quirks and weaknesses, and resources to navigate avenues to appeal,” Assessor Fritz Kaegi writes in his introduction to the report. “The aggregate effect of appeals from this minority is to reduce its share of the base, thus shifting more of the responsibility for property taxes to everyone else.”
But Board of Review Commissioner Michael Cabonargi said Kaegi’s pursuit of a preconceived outcome — that the tax burden should be shifted away from residential properties — is a fundamental flaw of his argument.
While it’s the role of the assessor’s office to establish criteria at the macro level, the Board of Review decides appeals based on specific properties and specific circumstances, he added.
“If he’s saying people don’t have the right to appeal, that’s something we’re going to disagree on,” Cabonargi said. “It’s a healthy but natural conflict that we’re going to review his work.”
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