THE LOOP (WBBM Newsradio) -- The person in charge of Cook County's finances is rolling out a new breakdown of changes in property tax rates over the last 30 years, which she described as a "wake-up" call for leaders across Illinois.
The report formally released Monday by the office of Treasurer Maria Pappas calculates property tax levies across the county have gone up 182% since the mid-'90s. For comparison, inflation over that same period increased 91%.
"We have to do something," Pappas said during an interview with WBBM Newsradio at her office in the Cook County Building, 118 N. Clark St., in advance of the report's release. "We're starting to feel the earth quaking. And when that earth starts quaking, people either start shouting or they get up and walk out."
Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas in her office at the Cook County Building, March 27, 2026.
Geoff Buchholz
Pappas added that state laws designed to ease the property tax burden are not helping. For instance, they don't limit increases in areas where part of the property tax levy is squirreled away for projects designed to boost the local economy. They're known as "tax increment financing" or "TIF" districts, and Pappas says there are more of those than ever.
"The number of properties in those districts (has grown) from 3,400 to 242,000," she said.
She also cited years of task forces and other reports calling for changes in the state's property tax system, which she said have largely gone nowhere.
And the constant increases are taking a toll on homeowners, which she says she hears about everywhere she goes: "People who come to the counter or meet me at the elevator in my building or see me on the street or pick me up at a restaurant say to me 'I hate the fact that my property taxes have doubled.'"
How does she respond? "I say 'did you vote?' And they say 'no.'"
But outrage about rising property taxes, especially on the West and South sides of Chicago, did energize some voters, and that's widely been cited as a reason that county Assessor Fritz Kaegi lost the March 17 Democratic primary to challenger Patrick Hynes. Pappas said it's time for state leaders to step in.
"We're past finger-pointing because the trucks are movin' people out of here."
