(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Voters in Cook County are being asked during the 2022 election to approve a property tax increase for the Cook County Forest Preserve District.
The last time the Cook County Forest Preserve District asked voters to approve a property tax increase was 1930, according to General Supt. Arnold Randall.
The current proposal would cost the owner of a home valued at $300,000 about $20 extra per year.
Randall said there are 70,000 acres in the forest preserve system, and that the extra $40 million would be used to protect and restore the wildlife habitat, as well as to acquire 2,700 more acres of land — most of it in the south suburbs.
The Civic Federation, a tax watchdog group, came out in support of the proposed property tax increase a couple of weeks ago.
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Of the forest preserve system, Randall said, “It’s an incredible asset gifted to us, you know, over 100 years ago, but the more people who live in Cook County, the higher the population, the more the need to protect these open spaces.”
The added dollars would also be used to fix storage buildings, picnic shelters and more that have gone without maintenance and to add to the trail system, 15% of which, Randall said, have been built in the past several years.
Tax revenues would also be used for capital programs at the Brookfield Zoo and Chicago Botanic Gardens, and to address a pension funding issue.
Randall said the tax increase even benefits those who do not visit the forest preserves because all those acres of land help clean our air and water.
“The forest preserves are the lungs of the region,” Randall said. “When you think about it, 70,000 acres of natural lands in Cook County. It’s a place where people, in general, certainly children, as well, but all of us can connect with nature.”
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