Cook County to sell $176 million of unpaid tax debt

Cook County plans to sell about $176 million of unpaid 2019 property taxes on homes, commercial buildings and vacant land, split almost evenly between the city proper and the suburbs.

Treasurer Maria Pappas said in a statement that the sale will take place on May 12-18 on taxes on 37,000 properties that were due in two payments in 2020. While almost 20,000 of the taxes amount to less than $1,000, the sale means a lien is placed against the property, a step that critics say disproportionately affects minority homeowners, and the county says many lien notices are returned.

“Many residents may be unaware that their property is eligible for the Tax Sale,” Pappas said. “The majority of the taxes offered are for properties in minority communities. I started ‘Black and Latino Houses Matter’ to help homeowners find refunds and apply for tax exemptions.”

Buyers of the tax can seek ownership of the properties in court if delinquent taxes aren’t paid by a deadline that’s typically about two-and-a-half years.

Earlier this year Pappas’ office ​​implemented a program to make it easier to buy the county’s 31,000 vacant or abandoned properties, which cost it $1.2 billion in lost tax revenue, according to Chicago CBS 2. She eliminated a $250 fee to obtain a list of the lots and created an interactive map to show where they are.

That change came ahead of a so-called scavenger sale that the county holds every other year, an auction of all properties with at least three years of unpaid property taxes. This year’s sale was in February.

“If more people are on the tax sale rolls; if more people pay more money, the other people who already live in houses would be paying less,” Pappas told CBS 2 at the time. “So this is a question of economic development.”