Cook County government has historically kept its property tax levy relatively flat, especially when compared to the other largest government bodies in Cook County including the City of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools, both of which have increased their property tax revenue significantly in recent years. A study recently released by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas finds that total taxes billed by all taxing districts for all property in Cook County increased from $7.85 billion in 2000 (for…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read a press release for this analysis. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Civic Federation supports the Cook County FY2021 Executive Budget Recommendation of $6.92 billion because it reflects the foresighted work Cook County has done over the past several years to establish a structurally balanced budget, which has positioned the County well to endure the financial crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The County has built up its general operating…
The full market value of real estate in Cook County was $609.6 billion in tax assessment year 2018 according to an annual estimate released by the Civic Federation today. The 2018 estimates represent the sixth year in a row in which real estate values in Cook County increased after six straight years of decline. The 2018 total value estimate was an increase of $24.3 billion, or 4.1%, from the 2017 estimated full value of $585.3 billion. However, the 2018 full value of real estate in Cook…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. MAJOR FINDINGS This report provides an estimate of the full market value of property in Cook County between tax years 2009 and 2018 using data provided by the Cook County Assessor and the Illinois Department of Revenue. It does not incorporate any changes to the value of property in Cook County due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data to estimate the full value of real estate in 2020 using this…
At a meeting on September 24, the Cook County Board approved changes in the operations of the County’s Inspector General’s Office, including recommendations made by the Civic Federation to improve public understanding of the office’s reports. Among other changes, the amendments to the ordinance governing the Office of the Independent Inspector General require that responses from agencies be included in public reports about investigations into waste and mismanagement. Longtime Inspector…
UPDATE: READ THE 100-DAY PROGRESS REPORT HERE UPDATE: READ THE ONE YEAR PROGRESS REPORT HERE Cick here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release. Click here for an Executive Summary one-pager. INTRODUCTION The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois and the second largest unified court system in the United States. The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County is responsible for most of the administrative functions of the…
UPDATE: On September 21, the Cook County Health (CCH) Board approved by a vote of eight to three an amended FY2021 proposed budget with $40 million of additional County funding, instead of the $53 million in the September 11 version. That amounts to $10 million more than the $30 million increase originally approved by County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office, but it is less than the $23 million addition in the CCH Board’s September 11 budget proposal. President Preckwinkle’s office…
On June 26, 2020, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle issued a preliminary budget forecast for fiscal year 2021, which begins December 1, 2020 and ends November 30, 2021. The report provides end-of-year estimates for the current 2020 fiscal year and a forecast for the 2021 fiscal year in the County’s operating funds: the General Fund, which accounts for administrative and public safety operations; and Health Fund, which accounts for the health and hospitals system run by the County.…
The Illinois Department of Revenue recently announced that the final equalization factor for the Cook County 2019 property assessment year (taxes payable in 2020) is 2.9160. Each year the Illinois Department of Revenue calculates equalization factors for every county in order to achieve uniform property assessment throughout the State. The 2019 final equalization factor of 2.9160 is slightly higher than the final 2018 equalization factor of 2.9109. This does not mean that individual property…
Changes could be coming to Cook County’s pretrial electronic monitoring program as the Cook County President’s Office looks to hire a consultant to examine best practices and potential alternatives to the way the Sheriff’s electronic monitoring program is currently run. While the number of people detained in the Cook County Jail has decreased significantly since pretrial reform efforts in Cook County began in 2013,[1] the number of people ordered to Sheriff’s electronic monitoring (EM) as a…
