Manufacturers, business owners and landlords located in Cook County’s northern townships are getting their first property tax assessments since longtime assessor Joe Berrios was ousted, and they are stunned.
Reports of property tax assessments doubling in the county surrounding the city of Chicago are not exaggerated.
Crain’s Chicago Business reports Tuesday that assessments under the new Assessor Fritz Kaegi have gone up as much as 89.9%.
Elected on a reform agenda in 2018, Kaegi began reassessing properties in Cook County earlier this year, a process that takes three years and covers about 1.8 million parcels. He started with the northern suburbs; so far, he has completed the assessment process for eight of 13 townships stretching from Evanston to Barrington Hills.
The trend is unambiguous. Assessment hikes for commercial and industrial properties dwarfed increases for homes in every township. The total assessed value for all commercial and industrial properties in the eight townships rose 89.9 percent, to $5.89 billion, versus a 16.7 percent increase, to $8.0 billion, for residential, according to an analysis of data from the Assessor’s Office.
The results have created havoc among Cook County business owners as they open their second installment tax bills:
Read more in Crain’s Chicago Business HERE.