The Office of the Cook County Assessor, the Anborough Fritz Keggy.

Fritz,

welcome.

Good afternoon, Chairman

Daly.

Good afternoon, Chairman Daly and Commissioners.

And before I begin discussion of our 2027 budget, I want to update you on my administration's strategic focus for the past few years.

And that is closing the gap in valuations of commercial property in our property tax system.

This gap has historically been the biggest inequity in the system.

We shifted our focus to commercial assessments after our successful work to make residential assessments fairer.

As you can see from the following slide, between 2018 and 2024, our assessment saved the owners of more affordable homes nearly $2 billion in property taxes, according to a major study by the University of Chicago.

But we still saw homeowners' tax bills spiking in part because of the commercial valuations gap between us and the board review.

In 2024, my office unveiled a strategic plan to guide the operations of the assessor's office.

The main priority of that plan was to narrow the gap between the assessor's office and board review final assessments.

Significant reductions in the value of large commercial properties at the board review level had led to increases in the share of tax burden carried by homeowners.

These reductions were due in part to different valuation practices in both of our offices.

At the end of 2024, the county property tax reform group released an analysis of the commercial valuation practices of each office and made a series of recommendations.

And the team of researchers behind this report, along with staff from the Civic Consulting Alliance, created a framework for real change.

Two years later, the work of the members of the group have led to tangible benefits for the owners for homeowners' tax bills.

And let's talk about the how and the why.

The assessor's office has taken three key steps in closing the commercial valuation gap.

We send data packets to the board review for each commercial property that appeals to them.

We defend the assessment decisions of some of the largest commercial properties at board review appeals hearings.

And we've come to a shared agreement on the calculation of tax rates and capitalization rates.

All of this work has led to a reduced shift in tax burden for homeowners.

Without getting further into the weeds, the data packets we send to the board review are effective for a couple of reasons.

First, uh they contain every valuation input that guides the assessment of commercial properties in Cook County.

You can see this on the slide here, you know, what we're providing for a concrete example of that.

Second, uh, these packets contain our initial assessments along with any changes we make on appeal.

So that gives them further information when they have their own decisions to make.

This part of assessment work is a cooperative act and improves the Cook County property tax system.

It is one of the strongest recommendations in the county's commercial valuation report.

And as mentioned, is an industry best practice.

It also has the most potential for reducing the property tax burden for homeowners.

It's the best dollar we spend in our office on behalf of homeowners.

The evidence we provide gives support to the board review's decisions, which are more then more defensible at the state's property tax appeals board, where large reductions can lead to costly refunds paid out by schools and taxing bodies, and where the board review defends the assessments of Cook County.

So

what does all this mean for homeowners who've taken on more of the property tax burden in recent years?

Let's look at the numbers in Elk Grove, where the three data centers are located.

I know this might be a particular interest to Kevin and Sean Morrison, our two commissioners who represent the area.

In the 2022 reassessment of Elk Grove Township, homeowners share of the property tax burden jolted upwards by four percentage points from 38% to 42%.

That's what happened in 2022.

By contrast, in the 2025 reassessment of Elk Grove Township, when we defended our data center assessments, homeowners maintained their previous year's share of the property tax base at 41%, even after appeals concluded at the board review.

So what difference does this make for their bills?

It means we slowed the increases in homeowners' tax bills.

In 2022, the median residential tax bill in Elk Grove Village shot up by 24%.

In 2025, the median residential bill increased by only 7%.

In

the North Surbs overall, we saw similar results.

In 2022, the median homeowners bill went up 16%, but in 2025, it only went up 7%.

That's because across the North Suburbs, the board review cut commercial property assessments by only 14% on appeal.

The annual sales ratio study from the Illinois Department of Revenue showed our assessments were on target for commercial property.

The board review cut our values much then much less than in previous years, thanks to the new collaborative measures that I've detailed.

And as a result, values ended up closer to the mark after appeals than after any reassessment in the last eight years.

We're already implementing additional steps to improve the system.

In 2026, the two offices are using a shared methodology to calculate tax rates, which were a very important input to commercial assessments.

The

assessor's office data team ran several scenarios about the most accurate way to calculate changes to tax rates due to reassessments.

Our office then met with the board review to decide on which method delivered the most accurate results and was understandable to the office stakeholders.

The agreed method uses data from the previous assessment to calculate the expected increases in the tax base and changes to the tax rate for each tax code.