Finance Committee Hearing on Assessor's Mid-Year Budget Update – July 23, 2026
Finance Committee of the Cook County Board: Assessor’s Mid-Year Budget Update – July 23, 2026
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi presented a mid-year budget update to the Finance Committee, highlighting accomplishments, ongoing reforms, and challenges in property tax administration. Commissioners asked detailed questions about commercial assessment methodology, senior exemptions, outreach, data integrity, and the impact of large commercial properties on homeowners.
Discussion Items
- NACo Awards & National Recognition: Assessor Kaegi noted that the Assessor’s Office received five awards at the National Association of Counties conference for initiatives including targeting campaigns for homeowners facing tax spikes, a new kiosk and callback system, an IT help desk, an internship talent pipeline, and a data integrity department.
- Progress on Assessment Fairness: Citing research from University of Chicago Professor Chris Berry, Kaegi stated that since 2018, residential assessments have become much fairer, saving owners of low- and middle-priced homes $1.9 billion in property taxes—more than 20% of Chicago’s annual citywide tax bill. However, property taxes remain too high for many working-class homeowners, especially in South and West Side Chicago neighborhoods where tax spikes occurred in the prior year.
- Commercial Assessment Reforms: Kaegi and his team described a new agreement with the Board of Review to use “loaded cap rates” with an effective tax rate, aligning with recommendations from a December 2024 county commercial assessment report. This methodology aims to produce more accurate commercial valuations and reduce the undervaluation that shifts tax burden to homeowners. The office is also defending assessments on high-value properties, particularly data centers, at Board of Review hearings and sharing data worksheets with Board analysts.
- Outreach & Data Tools: The office has conducted a record 214 outreach events in 2025 and 127 events so far in 2026, focusing on South and West suburbs. New online tools include a housing market tracker, an updated property tax simulation tool (PTAXSIM), and an affordable housing data map showing 1,200 projects approved under the ASAP program, which was extended to 2034 by the General Assembly.
- Senior Exemptions & Freeze: Kaegi and staff discussed automatic renewal of the senior exemption (already implemented) and efforts to pass similar automatic renewal for the senior freeze. They noted an agreement with the Illinois Department of Revenue to audit income for senior freeze applicants, with a full audit of the senior freeze roll planned for fall 2026. Income thresholds for the freeze are set to rise from $65,000 to $79,000 over several years, effective next year.
- Data Integrity & Field Inspections: The office has 38 staff on the data integrity team (building inspectors, analysts, permit processors) with nine vacancies to fill. Staff emphasized the challenge of tracking property changes, such as demolitions and new construction, noting that some municipalities do not consistently send permits. They are using mobile technology and a new vendor (LexisNexis) to improve data accuracy.
- Use of AI and Machine Learning: Kaegi explained that machine learning has been used for five years to improve residential valuation models, reducing bias by about 80% compared to prior methods. Statistical tests identify model weaknesses in specific neighborhoods, prompting targeted analyst work and outreach. He warned against over-reliance on more advanced AI without human oversight.
- Data Centers and Commercial Appeals: Several commissioners raised concerns about data center assessments and settlements that shift tax burden. Kaegi detailed how data center owners use aggressive appeals, including arguing that equipment is personal property (despite being publicly held as real estate), and how school districts sometimes settle at lower values to avoid state-level appeals. The office has filed complaints with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation against appraisers who provide what they consider garbage valuations.
- Sales Ratio Study: Jim Thompson from the President’s Office clarified that an independent sales ratio study, covering all property types including apartments, is underway and expected by end of August 2026. It will be released as part of the annual property tax reform group report. The study is intended as a check on assessment accuracy.
- Impact of New Development: Commissioner Gaynor raised the issue of new construction raising assessments on neighboring older homes. Kaegi noted that the office’s modeling aims to compare similar properties and that homeowners should appeal if they believe their home is over-assessed, providing evidence of deficiencies.
- Legislative Concerns: Commissioner Gaynor discussed House Bill 1167 (proposed South Suburban homestead relief pilot) and expressed concern that new exemptions could add complexity and fail to address systemic problems in communities like Harvey, where tax rates are five times higher than the lowest in Cook County. Kaegi agreed that exemptions are one of the few progressive elements in a regressive property tax system, but that the root causes include school funding and undervalued commercial properties.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken. The meeting was informational regarding the Assessor’s Office mid-year budget and operations.
- The Assessor’s Office and Board of Review will continue collaborating on commercial assessment methodology, including loaded cap rates and data sharing.
- The independent sales ratio study will be completed by August 2026, providing a public report card on assessment accuracy.
- The Assessor’s Office will proceed with auditing the entire senior freeze roll in fall 2026, sending notices to potentially ineligible households.
- Commissioners urged continued outreach and transparency, particularly in communities facing high tax burdens.
Meeting Transcript
The Finance Committee of the Cook County Board will reconvene. On the preliminary budget of President Tony Preckwickel, we have the Office of the Cook County Assessor, the Annbrook Fritz Cady. Welcome, Fritz. Good morning, uh, Chairman Daly and uh commissioners. Uh in keeping with tradition, um, I know our mid year uh budget update will uh touch on more than just the mid-year budget. Um so I want to update you on how we've been using the county's investment to serve the public over the last year. Um last week I attended the annual National Association of Counties Conference in New Orleans, as I know many of you did. Um, and uh our office was honored with five awards this year for targeting campaigns for Chicago homeowners experiencing property tax spikes, uh, for implementing a new kiosk and callback system to improve taxpayer services, for creating a new IT help desk to centralize uh tech support services, uh, for the talent pipeline that we've created through our internship program and creating uh and for creating a data integrity department for accurate data collection. Um I also spoke to a PAC room at NACO on the topic of property taxes with uh my colleague uh Maricopa County Arizona assessor uh Eddie Cook. Um the jurisdiction is probably most like ours. While our county has its idiosyncrasies, the problem of high property taxes is national in scope. Eddie and I have represented the top 25 large assessment jurisdictions over the past few years in panels just like that one. Um each time I discuss the meaningful reforms we pushed through over the last eight years. These changes have brought us national recognition, but more importantly, they've made the property tax system more transparent, more fair, more accessible for all the property owners in Cook County. Um last fall I told you about new research from the University of Chicago. Uh, Professor Chris Barry, a leading, maybe probably the leading expert on property taxes. Um, his work showed how much fairer residential assessments have become since 2018. Before 2018, the most expensive homes in Cook County. Lakefront Mansions along the North Shore and Deluxe Gold Coast condos were underassessed. That meant that their owners paid less than they should in property taxes. More modest homes and working class suburbs and Chicago neighborhoods were overassessed when we came in in 2018. Their owners paid more than they should in property taxes. Professor Barry that found that we've come a very long way toward eliminating that unfairness in assessments. In doing so, he showed that we save the owners of low and uh middle price homes 1.9 billion dollars in property taxes savings off of their bills, which is more than 20 percent of Chicago's citywide tax bill each year. But it's bittersweet for me to talk about that progress because property taxes are still too high for thousands and thousands of working class homeowners here. We saw that last year in Chicago when South and West Side homeowners experienced severe tax spikes. My staff leapt into action even before bills came out. We analyzed where bills were likely to increase and increased outreach for homeowners who we thought might be uh missing exemptions. Our outreach earned us a NACO award. But more importantly, it made a difference for uh all of our constituents. We held 214 outreach events for homeowners last year, uh a record for our office beating the record that we set the prior year. That said, we still have to tackle the root causes of high property taxes for homeowners, especially big commercial property reductions, which led to significant tax bill increases on a lot of South and West Side neighborhoods. When data centers, when big luxury apartment buildings are getting cuts, it pushes the burden onto our neighbors. For the last few years, we've been following the recommendations from a study put together by Cook County on commercial assessments. That study found that assessments for commercial properties were too low after appeals at the board of review finished, especially in Chicago for properties worth more than two million dollars. That was especially true for the highest value commercial properties. Think downtown high rises or massive data centers in the suburbs. We've worked with the board review to implement the reforms called for by that study. This year, both offices have settled on a shared methodology for estimating tax rates and valuations. So what's the impact of this? It means our county's property tax system is less likely to undervalue commercial properties by overestimating their tax expenses. We've also been sharing assessment data with the board review for any commercial properties that appeal to their office. When deciding on appeals, their analysts see where our what our analysts see. Our legal and valuations teams have defended many of our assessments on high value properties and hearings at the board review. We focused on suburban data centers in places like Elkgrove Village and North Lake, which led to smaller reductions or no changes in a lot of cases. So that's real making a real difference for taxpayers. Our work there keeps taxes low for homeowners. It's another impact of our continued collaboration with the board. We continue to develop our expertise in this area, and we share it with others, including just this week the director of our valuation research and I, we ran a continuing education class for all the assessors in Wisconsin. All of this work on commercial assessments also ties into a central question that comes up often when thinking about how to budget.
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