April 23, 2026
By Roland Calia
A recent report by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas shows that Cook County property taxes surged 182% in the 30-year period between 1995 and 2024, rising from $6.8 billion to $19.2 billion. This is far greater than the 91% rate of inflation during that period and much higher than the 161% increase in wage growth (161%). The major drivers of this increase are:
- Increases in school district levies, which hiked property taxes by over 189% in this period.
- The failure of the state’s property tax cap law to limit tax increases due to myriad loopholes and exemptions.
- A multiplicity of local taxing bodies cumulatively and persistently raising levies.
As a result, the total property tax burden across Cook County has dramatically risen, and taxes are consuming a rapidly increasing share of property owners’ income.
The Civic Federation’s Call for Comprehensive Property Tax Reform
The Treasurer’s report references several Civic Federation reports on property tax caps, pensions, township consolidation, and provides evidence for the Civic Federation’s recent opinion editorial in the Chicago Tribune, pointing out that Illinois’ property tax system is fundamentally broken because:
- It is overly complex, inequitable, and built from decades of patchwork fixes rather than coherent design.
- The state relies too heavily on property taxes, especially for schools, driving consistently rising tax burdens on homeowners and businesses.
- Existing limits like PTELL (“tax caps”) are ineffective due to loopholes and exemptions.
- Extremely high tax rates in struggling areas reflect economic decline and shrinking tax bases, not better public services.
High property taxes are becoming unaffordable, leading to falling collection rates and a downward spiral of higher rates on fewer taxpayers. Illinois needs comprehensive property tax reform that creates a simpler, fairer, more transparent system.
Civic Federation Recent Research on Property Taxes
The Civic Federation has a 132-year history of education and action in the field of tax policy research and commentary. Together with research from organizations like the Cook County Treasurer’s Office, we hope to drive conversations forward on revising the current complex and chaotic property tax system.
In the past year, the Civic Federation has released the following reports explaining how the property tax system works in Cook County:
Property Tax Limitations In Practice: What The Data Reveals About Property Tax Caps In Cook County
Illinois’ Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) was intended to slow the growth rate of property taxes by capping annual increases in property tax extensions for non-home rule governments, such as school districts and park districts, to 5% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower each year. However, the law contains exclusions and exceptions that allow growth beyond the intended limit.
This report shows that because of these exceptions, Cook County governments subject to PTELL increased their property tax extensions by 71.3% between 2006 and 2023, while inflation during that period was 46%. Over $1 billion was collected in tax year 2023 alone, exceeding what would have occurred under a true inflation cap. The conclusion is that PTELL has not achieved its intended purpose of limiting property tax growth.
The Civic Federation’s report findings, which evaluated the impact on taxpayers of tax-capped governments, complement those in the Treasurer’s report, which measured and evaluated the impact of tax increases by all governments in Cook County.
The Cook County Property Tax Extension Process: A Primer
This report explains the system and method for how property taxes are levied, calculated, and collected in Cook County, Illinois. This is called the tax extension and billing process.
The purpose of the report is to make the property tax system more transparent and understandable for policymakers, homeowners, renters, business owners, and residents across Cook County. It highlights the complexity of the property tax system and identifies the roles played by the many actors in the property tax process.
Tax Increment Financing: A Primer
Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is an economic development tool that allows municipalities to capture growth in property tax revenues generated within designated redevelopment areas and reinvest those revenues to pay for development-related costs within a designated district. The money can be used for infrastructure improvements, land acquisition, site preparation, building rehabilitation, environmental remediation, relocation assistance, and certain planning or financing costs.
The primer explains how Tax Increment Financing (TIF) operates in Illinois, including Chicago; assesses its fiscal impacts on taxpayers and overlying taxing bodies; outlines the TIF designation process; summarizes key policy debates over its benefits and drawbacks; and reviews recent empirical research on TIF in Illinois and the United States. As the Treasurer’s report notes, the multiplicity of TIF districts is a key driver of property tax burden in Cook County.
Property Tax Collection Rates in Cook County: Trends, Disparities, and Fiscal Implications
This analysis of Cook County property tax collections reveals warning signs in property tax collection rates in recent years:
- Countywide Decline: Collection rates fell for three straight years, from 96.4% in 2021 to 95.1% in 2023. While this may seem like a small change, nearly $1 billion in billed property taxes went uncollected in 2023.
- Regional Disparities: South Cook suburbs face the most severe challenges. In 2023, Ford Heights collected just 31.4% of billed taxes, and several other communities collected less than 80%. By comparison, the North Suburbs averaged 96.9% and Chicago 95.5%.
- Equity Concerns: Areas with lower median household incomes have significantly higher delinquency rates, threatening the ability of local governments and school districts in those communities to provide essential services.
- Systemic Pressures: High effective tax rates, the regressive nature of property taxation, and a complex appeals process contribute to long-term collection challenges. These findings underscore deep structural inequities in Illinois’ reliance on property taxes to fund local services. Without intervention, declining collection rates and widening disparities will continue to undermine the fiscal health of governments in Cook County, particularly those serving historically under-resourced communities.
Estimated Full Value Of Real Property In Cook County: 2013-2023
This report provides an estimate of the full market value of property in Cook County between tax years 2013 and 2023, the latest tax year for which full information was available.
The full market value of real estate in Cook County was nearly $757 billion in the tax assessment year 2022. The 2022 full value estimate represents an increase of $61.8 billion, or 8.9%, from the 2021 estimated full value and an increase of $296.8 billion, or 64.6%, from 2013.
Tax year 2022 is only the second year since 2006 that the full value of property has met or exceeded 2006 levels.
Prior to 2006, the estimated full value of real estate in the City of Chicago and its suburbs grew every year, going back to at least 1995. In 2007, real estate values began to decline, hitting a low point in 2012. This was due to the negative impact of the Great Recession. Since 2013, the total estimated full values of the County’s assessment districts have maintained an upward trend. The values decreased briefly in 2020, primarily as a result of COVID adjustments implemented by the Assessor, but increased again in 2021 and 2022. It is important to note that residential property value has recovered to pre–Great Recession levels, but commercial and industrial property value has not.