“There will be no further delays.”
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle told us that not once but twice in regard to the county’s terrible recent record in mailing property tax bills on time. That was in late January when she was in the midst of a spirited primary contest with Chicago Ald. Brendan Reilly and meeting with the editorial board.
She said much the same about a month later, CBS-2 reported, pledging that tax bills would “be out by March 2, due April 1, and we’ll have a transparent and accountable system going forward. It’s a lock.”
Preckwinkle topped Reilly in the March primary and is poised to easily secure a fifth term as Cook County Board president in November.
So, surprise, surprise. Preckwinkle last week warned that second-installment property tax bills will be significantly delayed. She projected that bills will go out in early September, about two months later than they’re supposed to. And even that date isn’t “a lock.”
As the Tribune reported, county officials at a hearing last week couldn’t promise that even that time frame would be met, prompting county Commissioner Alma Anaya to urge fellow board members to “knock all the wood right here.”
Well, that’s confidence-inspiring.
It’s eye-roll-inducing that Preckwinkle’s promises when she was facing one of the best-financed primary challenges of her long tenure as board president now have proved to be so much blather just a few months later. But the real losers here are the numerous taxing bodies throughout Cook County that once again will receive their property tax revenues months late — and the taxpayers who will have to shell out more to cover those taxing bodies’ financing costs.
To help beleaguered schools, libraries, municipalities and other taxing bodes cope, the county has set aside $300 million for no-interest bridge loans. But those dollars aren’t available for all. For example, once again Chicago Public Schools won’t qualify, so it presumably will have to rely on lines of credit to make payroll and keep the lights on until the property tax cash comes through.
Junk-rated CPS, one of the most fiscally stressed taxing bodies in Cook County and facing a coming school-year deficit topping $700 million, had to pay tens of millions in interest due to the major delays in receiving the 2025 second-installment revenues.
Also, as to that Preckwinkle pledge that “we’ll have a transparent and accountable system going forward,” it’s noteworthy that at last week’s County Board hearing on the issue, the Tribune reported that county officials could offer “few clear explanations” for this year’s delay.
Last year’s was pinned on the well-documented problems with the migration of county tax records from an antiquated computer system to a new platform created by Texas-based Tyler Technologies. Apparently, this year’s can’t be laid at the feet of Tyler and is due instead to delays and missteps at some or all of the various county offices responsible for managing Cook County’s convoluted property tax system.
Which offices are responsible, and to what degree? Unclear.
So, transparent? Nope. Accountable? Also nope.
What that leaves us is a County Board president who, at a minimum, made promises she couldn’t keep as she sought to tack on another four years to the 16 years she’s already served.
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