Likely Cook County property tax bill delay spurs blame game between politicians, contractor
If those tax bills are significantly late, it could be problematic for school districts.
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi is, once again, facing scrutiny over property taxes.
In a year when homeowners in some parts of the county are seeing skyrocketing assessments, now comes word tax bills could be delayed.
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Kaegi's office missed a deadline to get reports to the Illinois Department of Revenue, which is part of the process of finalizing the assessments and the bills.
The delay is frustrating Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
"If we had known that they missed the deadline earlier, we might have taken some action together that could have expedited the process, but now, we're in the position of expected delays in the bills," Preckwinkle said.
The assessor's office blamed Tyler Technologies, which is under contract to upgrade the county computer system and also send the reports to the state.
In a statement, the assessor's office said, "The Cook County Assessor's Office does not determine when tax bills go out. For the past six months, the Assessor's Office has been sounding the alarm on this issue with all the people involved in the transition off of the legacy mainframe."
Preckwinkle said, "We've had some challenges with Tyler all the way along, but this fall squarely on the assessor's office."
The next tax bills are supposed to go out July 1, with payment due by Aug. 1, allowing the money to get to taxing bodies by the end of the month.
School districts like Chicago Public Schools, which depend heavily in property taxes, would not be hurt by a short delay, but if it drags on, the district may have to consider short term loans to make payroll.
Tyler Technologies said in a statement, "Tyler has and will continue to work diligently with the assessor's office on all aspects of the software transition, including the reports for IDOR. We have been responsive to any changes or data challenges that were identified."
Tax attorney Aaron Fox said the situation should not affect homeowners unless the tax bills end up very delayed. In which case, they run close to the next due installment.
"If there's a shot time, it's just harder on people. If they're paying out of their own pocket, it's hard to save that money. It's such a short amount of time. You're like, I just paid a huge amount and now, to pay 55% of the other one, it's a huge mega bill. That would be the worst case," Fox explained.
While the information got to the Illinois Department of Revenue about three months late, it does not mean tax bills will be delayed the same amount of time. Schools and cities hope the process can be expedited to avoid any financial burdens down the road.
