When a Cook County business successfully appeals their property taxes, the county just shifts that burden to homeowners. This meant an extra $2 billion in residential property taxes instead of a lower property tax levy.
By LyLena Estabine and Cameron Jasper | Illinois Policy Institute
Cook County homeowners paid $1.9 billion more in property taxes over two years, because commercial property owners appealed their bills and won.
A report from Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas reveals between 2021 and 2023, businesses in Cook County, which already face some of the highest commercial property taxes in the nation, successfully appealed their property assessments and reduced their collective tax burden by more than $3.3 billion.
The same report shows businesses in Cook County successfully appealed their property assessments and reduced their collective tax burden by more than $3.3 billion.
But it didn’t shrink the amount of money local governments collect. Under Illinois’s levy-based tax system, taxing bodies decide how much money they will raise first, and then the tax rate adjusts to meet that amount. When commercial property owners win appeals, the taxes still have to be paid, and the burden shifts to everyone else.
According to the findings, from 2021 to 2023 the cost was largely picked up by homeowners, who paid $1.9 billion more over the same three-year period. That means the property tax appeals system didn’t just reduce commercial bills – it transferred most of the responsibility directly onto families who are already struggling under some of the nation’s highest property tax rates.
Businesses have every right to appeal their bills, they pay some of the highest in the nation. But if property tax bills are off by the billions, it’s a sign the government needs to spend less before adding billions to the burden to homeowners.
Read more here.