{"id":545848,"date":"2026-01-27T02:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/545848\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T02:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:42:12","slug":"cook-county-board-president-hopefuls-spar-over-tech-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/545848\/","title":{"rendered":"Cook County Board president hopefuls spar over tech upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

If elected Cook County Board president, downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly said Monday he would launch a \u201cfull review\u201d of Tyler Technologies \u2014 the Texas firm that has been working for more than a decade on upgrading the county\u2019s property tax systems<\/a> \u2014 \u201cto put a stop to the total mismanagement of its tax system under the leadership of Toni Preckwinkle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reilly and Preckwinkle are set to face off in the March Democratic primary to lead the Cook County Board, the county\u2019s $10 billion budget, and its health system and Forest Preserve District. Reilly has made one of his core criticisms of Preckwinkle\u2019s four terms as board president the long-standing, ongoing problems with upgrading the county\u2019s property tax system, which have led to a significant delays and lots of finger-pointing among elected officials seeking to avoid blame.<\/p>\n

In an endorsement session with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, Preckwinkle acknowledged the latest problems with the upgrade that delayed distributions of tax money \u201chave real consequences for schools and other taxing bodies,\u201d but noted that she tried to minimize the damage by offering short-term interest-free bridge loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t control assessment or distribution,\u201d she repeated twice, also pointing out property tax bills were late for decades before she took office. Those functions are run by the separately elected county assessor, clerk and treasurer. Preckwinkle and the County Board authorized the Tyler contract, and her Bureau of Technology has refereed its implementation.<\/p>\n

School districts estimate the delays cost $122 million<\/a> between the interest and issuance costs of borrowing, cashing out investments or forgoing investment income that would have otherwise built up if revenue had come out on time. Many districts didn\u2019t qualify for Preckwinkle\u2019s bridge loan program because their credit ratings or reserves were too strong.<\/p>\n

Tyler won two contracts to update the county\u2019s court and property tax records systems, costing up to $38 million. As delays have mounted, so have ancillary project management costs and the price of keeping the county\u2019s mainframe computers running.<\/p>\n

\"CookCook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle speaks during a news conference at the Bronzeville Health Center on Jan. 5, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The latest delay affecting property tax distributions was not Tyler\u2019s fault \u2014 county stakeholders belatedly realized they had been testing on an incorrect file \u2014 but school districts have been upset about a lack of communication from county leaders to plan for those delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe depend upon cooperation and collaboration from agency stakeholders, as well as timely and consistent information and guidance from those partners,\u201d Tyler Chief Administrative Officer Abigail Diaz wrote in a recent letter to the editor published Sunday in the Tribune.<\/p>\n

Reilly said in Monday\u2019s meeting with the editorial board that \u201cCook County has a responsibility to help\u201d with the cost of delayed property tax bills to other taxing bodies.<\/p>\n

Preckwinkle\u2019s team is meeting with some school district leaders later this week to air their concerns \u201cand to assure them\u201d they can count on distributions coming out on time during the next tax cycle in April.\u00a0A Tyler spokesperson said 85% of tax revenues from the bills due in December have been distributed.<\/p>\n

Reilly said in a news release just before the editorial board meeting that he \u201cwould not hesitate to terminate this contract and replace Tyler Technologies if the facts lead us in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preckwinkle has said both the selection of Tyler and the decision to keep the company after earlier problems were made in agreement with the other elected property tax officials. Tyler\u2019s current contract runs through March, and includes renegotiated terms that netted $4.3 million in county savings and tied future payments to the company hitting milestones.<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement Monday, a Tyler spokesperson noted the company\u2019s original contract was awarded \u201cfollowing a competitive evaluation process,\u201d and that Tyler will continue to collaborate closely \u201cwith each of the participating agencies to ensure a successful outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyler has worked \u201caround the clock for months\u201d and honored that fixed-fee contract \u201ceven as we have surged resources, most recently over the course of 2025, in response to new data or changing directions,\u201d the company\u2019s statement reads in part.<\/p>\n

\"Ald.Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, speaks with reporters on Oct. 16, 2025, in City Council chambers at Chicago City Hall. (Brian Cassella\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

If Reilly were elected, he would not be sworn in until December, when the rest of Tyler\u2019s to-do list would likely be complete. Further upgrades include the ability to issue $163 million in outstanding refunds and the operation of the county\u2019s annual tax sale.<\/p>\n

Preckwinkle otherwise defended her four terms leading the county at the Monday meeting, touting improved pension funding<\/a>, balanced budgets<\/a>, suburban infrastructure investments and criminal justice reforms that helped lead to the elimination of cash bail statewide.<\/p>\n

Reilly, meanwhile, tried to tie her to the political success of former State\u2019s Attorney Kim Foxx and Mayor Brandon Johnson. Foxx was Preckwinkle\u2019s chief of staff and Preckwinkle helped Johnson\u2019s first election to the County Board, but did not endorse his mayoral bid until the runoff. Reilly argued Foxx\u2019s advocacy for bail reforms had placed the public at risk, citing the recent immolation of a Blue Line rider.<\/p>\n

Preckwinkle said Foxx was an \u201cexcellent\u201d chief of staff and \u201cfine state\u2019s attorney\u201d who \u201cput a lot of emphasis on trying to improve a system that was broken and that disproportionately impacted Black and brown communities in a negative way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis terrible story about this poor woman on the Blue Line is heartbreaking, and my heart goes out to her and her family. But we can\u2019t make public policy on the basis of these single horrific acts. We have to make public policy on the basis of data. And what\u2019s happened in Cook County in the last four years is violent crime has gone down 50%,\u201d Preckwinkle said, noting that she\u2019d boosted the budgets of the state\u2019s attorney, sheriff and chief judge in recent years and also spent money on violence prevention.<\/p>\n

Asked about the mayor, Preckwinkle said, \u201cI\u2019m focused on my race and I have no comment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If elected Cook County Board president, downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly said Monday he would launch a \u201cfull review\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":545849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,14677,14678,5404,14679,14680,14720,14681,90,5386,1818,1370,50,80],"class_list":["post-545848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-heights","tag-cicero","tag-cook-county","tag-country-club-hills","tag-countryside","tag-daily-southtown","tag-deerfield","tag-elections","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115964762384573401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}