Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi recently hosted events on the South and West sides with the goal to assist homeowners in navigating property tax savings. During these events, staff from the Assessor’

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and the Assessor’s office has hosted events to help homeowners navigate property tax exemptions. Photo provided by the Cook County Assessor’s Office.
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and the Assessor’s office has hosted events to help homeowners navigate property tax exemptions. Photo provided by the Cook County Assessor’s Office.

Cook County Assessor Working to Help Homeowners

By Tia Carol Jones

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi recently hosted events on the South and West sides with the goal to assist homeowners in navigating property tax savings. During these events, staff from the Assessor’s Office help property tax payers with exemptions that they might have missed.

Kaegi said that there were a couple hundred people in attendance who received assistance from the Assessor’s office outreach staff, including members from the evaluation team, who are responsible for estimating the value of residential property. He said that the office was able to help people and that 40% of those in attendance didn’t have one of the exemptions, which could mean they are missing out on valuable savings.

For instance, the Homeowners exemption is around $600 off a typical property tax bill, the Senior Homestead exemption is around $500 off a typical property tax bill. He said the typical increase in property tax bill in Englewood was about $700.

“That is very meaningful for people in Englewood,” he said. He added that there were a lot of questions about what was driving the increase people experienced in that community.

Kaegi said in the last month, he has spoken to hundreds of homeowners on the South and West sides that were shocked and upset by the property tax bills they received. He said it really hit home that the increases homeowners in Englewood experienced were part of a pattern of big cuts to commercial property, coming from commissioners from the Cook County Board of Review.

“The Board of Review cut values on commercial properties downtown so much that it shifted $700 of the property tax burden onto every homeowner in Chicago, and that accounted for almost all of the increase to the people in Englewood,” he said.

Kaegi said that the events engage members in the community on the South and West sides to help them navigate tax exemptions is something his office does during the end of the year. He said at times there are multiple events taking place each day to ensure the benefits are accessible to homeowners. He said that communities on the South and West sides are some of those least likely to be signed up for exemptions, and those are the places where those exemptions are the most needed.

Kaegi said the Cook County Assessor’s Office does two things: administer exemptions and estimate what properties are selling for. He said that the workshops are important to ensure people are getting their exemptions and that they can receive the answers to why their assessment might be higher than it was before.

He said homeowners can go back in time and get certificates of error for the exemptions that they didn’t have. He said the Assessor’s office is also doing the events as a way to listen to homeowners, they can help to navigate them through the appeals process or provide a certificate of error, if a mistake was made.

In addition to these exemption workshops, Kaegi has also proposed legislation that would take the tax burden off homeowners. He said it is something the office has been doing since 2024, because there is a need. He said the tax burden is being shifted to homeowners because of big commercial cuts, which is causing spikes in communities. He said last year it was happening in the South suburbs, this year it is happening in the city of Chicago.

“We said, it’s not enough for us to be talking about exemptions, someone needs to be fighting for homeowners to protect against the spikes that people can experience … people are at real risk of losing their homes,” he said.

Kaegi said that there are 29 states, including the District of Columbia, that have property tax relief programs, called circuit breaker plans. The Cook County Assessor’s Office is adapting the best features from those other states’ programs and make it economical for the State and County, while designing it so it helps the people who need it most.

 The Cook County circuit breaker program would, for those who have a spike in their bill of 25% or more from one year to the next, that homeowner would get three years of relief if they met an income qualification of less than $100,000, they would get relief of up to half the increase of the bill for three years. Kaegi gave the example: if a homeowner’s bill increases to $2,000, the homeowner would get $1,000, which would be funded by the state of Illinois.

“It would cost less than one half of 1% percent of the State’s budget, and be an economical way of safeguarding people from incredible distress at a time when people are really feeling the pinch of healthcare cost, insurance and all of the other elements of inflation,” he said. He added that it should be a priority of the state to keep homeowners in their homes.

For more information about the Cook County Assessor’s Office, visit www.cookcountyassessoril.gov or call 312-443-7550.

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