Cook County Property Tax Billing Delay Spells Doom

Second-half property tax bills for Cook County won’t be sent out until at least September, and possibly not until Thanksgiving, pushing a critical cash flow lifeline for local governments deeper into the red and threatening to upend the city’s budget process as well as upcoming elections.

Roughly $8 billion in assessments, usually billed by July 1 and due by August, are now caught in a bureaucratic morass, Crain’s reported, with various county offices pointing fingers over who’s to blame.

Officials cited persistent issues with Tyler Technologies’ botched rollout of a new billing system, which has left every involved office behind on some part of the process, according to a dashboard from County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office.

The delay is already straining cash-strapped school districts and could complicate Chicago’s $1 billion budget gap, with city leaders hoping to finalize next year’s spending plan by early fall.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has ruled out a property tax hike and instead pledged to find new “progressive revenue” sources. But without timely revenue from the fall bills, stopgap borrowing or service cuts may be inevitable.

Politically, the chaos could prove costly. Tax bills will arrive closer to the end of the year, as voters prepare for the March 2026 Democratic primaries.

One likely flashpoint is the Cook County Assessor’s race, where incumbent Fritz Kaegi is already facing blowback over reassessment sticker shock, ballooning residential bills and ongoing tech-related delays. The county Democratic Party snubbed Kaegi last week and endorsed his former staffer, Patrick Hynes, a more traditional candidate backed by the old political machine.

The bills will also be the first to reflect Kaegi’s latest citywide reassessment, which shifted more of the burden onto homeowners as commercial properties saw valuation breaks post-pandemic. Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson warned that local government systems relying on revenue from property taxes are already operating on a “razor’s edge” and said the need to stabilize the billing process is now urgent.

— Judah Duke