Opinion to the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board
A response urging transparency, maps, and data to show how any circuit-breaker proposal would affect taxpayers across Cook County.
Opinion to the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board in Response to their Editorial
As many of us knew more than four years ago, the Cook County property tax crisis would reach a breaking point, with taxpayers, residents and small businesses alike, facing unprecedented tax hikes. What is most troubling is that the crisis is most severe in low-income/minority neighborhoods.
While Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s recent proposal for a circuit-breaker program offers a partial solution, it is time to do the math. Rhetoric has not and will not save homes and businesses. What’s missing from this conversation is full transparency.
How can we solve a problem without knowing its scope? The Assessor’s Office must release comprehensive data on property assessments and tax bill hikes across townships, ensuring taxpayers know the full picture. Taxpayers are smart. They get it. Let’s just show them, in their terms, the reality of the crisis.
Without data, simple explanations, and scenarios, we cannot address the true scale of the issue, and taxpayers will continue to feel blindsided. South suburban communities, for example, are already feeling the brunt of these increases, with some facing 20% or more tax bill jumps this year alone.
Transparency and taxpayer inclusion are the cornerstones of any genuine solution to the property tax crisis. The solution starts with releasing all the relevant data—now, not later. Only then can we begin to craft policies that fairly distribute the tax burden and provide relief to those hardest hit.