My office recently mailed property tax bills to owners of nearly 1.8 million parcels in Cook County. First installment tax bills are due March 1. Local governments, such as school districts and municipalities, count on my office to collect about $18 billion a year from property owners. We then distribute[Read More…]

Our complex property tax system confuses many taxpayers. Many have a tough time understanding assessments, exemptions, tax levies and other terms we use to describe parts of the system. Paying taxes can be even more difficult for people who primarily speak a language other than English. There are a lot[Read More…]

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Maria Pappas is Cook County Treasurer. This guest column appears in the Chronicle as an information piece.) Cook County owes refunds to thousands of property owners because of past overpayments and missed exemptions. Many homeowners who could use the extra money to pay bills, buy groceries and meet[Read More…]