{"id":657188,"date":"2026-03-15T10:32:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/657188\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T10:32:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:32:32","slug":"cook-county-assessor-candidates-grapple-over-skyrocketing-property-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/657188\/","title":{"rendered":"Cook County assessor candidates grapple over skyrocketing property taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Democratic primary contest for Cook County assessor pits a two-term millionaire running on systemic reform<\/a> against a dynastic party-backed challenger who says those changes have led to chaos and skyrocketing bills<\/a> for taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Assessor Fritz Kaegi and Pat Hynes are fighting for control of the office that sets valuations of more than 1.8 million parcels across the county, a key component to calculating annual tax bills.<\/p>\n

Hynes has seized on anger over spikes to South and West Side assessments<\/a> and bills last year, the hundreds of new or renovated properties Kaegi\u2019s office failed to catch<\/a> during the pandemic, and other assessment or exemption errors Hynes personally worked to correct as a suburban assessor since 2021.<\/p>\n

Hynes has the support of the Cook County Democratic Party, the Chicago Federation of Labor, building trade unions and the Building Owners and Managers Association, which represents the local office building industry.<\/p>\n

Kaegi, meanwhile, says his challenger would take the office\u2019s ethics backwards, citing Hynes\u2019 roster of campaign donors, which includes several property tax appeals attorneys and appraisers. The donations are not only an ethical problem, he said, but a signal that Hynes\u2019 practices would be more favorable toward big businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be taking donations in the morning and then hearing people\u2019s appeals for reductions in the afternoon,\u201d Kaegi told the Tribune.<\/p>\n

His campaign has also faulted Hynes for misleading statements about the office\u2019s improvements and Kaegi\u2019s own home bill.<\/p>\n

Though the assessor\u2019s office relies heavily on data and modeling, its conclusions, outside appeals and internal policies can drastically change values and make the office\u2019s political tightrope shaky. Lowering assessments for certain classes or neighborhoods pushes more of the property tax burden on other taxpayers.<\/p>\n

With a budget of $43 million and a staff of 315, the assessor\u2019s mission is to set values as close as possible to what homes, businesses and lots can fetch on the open market.<\/p>\n

In his first race in 2018, Kaegi emphasized the importance of calling balls and strikes, not favoring one property class over another. Now, he presents himself as a forceful advocate for homeowners and has fought to boost assessments on big downtown buildings, arguing they have long been under-assessed.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Kaegi told the Tribune said he\u2019s seen \u201chow all the different things that might look objective on their face end up punishing homeowners\u201d with less time or money to appeal than big businesses, or who are unaware of available exemptions.<\/p>\n

Going after big fish \u2014 data centers or office buildings fighting for tens of millions in reductions \u2014 is a better bang for the buck, he argues. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked about, \u2018Should we triple our workforce for building inspectors, or should we substantially increase the analyst staff that goes and defends our assessments at the Board of Review?\u2019 The latter would have much more significant impact on an average homeowner.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been able to push that message and forego contributions from appeals lawyers and appraisers by self-funding. In all, he\u2019s chipped in $7.1 million to his own campaign since the 2018 cycle \u2013 $1.5 million since January alone. Among his endorsers<\/a> is AFSCME, the union that represents workers in his office.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also used that money to try to oust opponents on the Board of Review. It\u2019s a practice he previously swore off, arguing it was inappropriate to try to influence elections for a board that checks his assessments. But \u201cexceptional\u201d circumstances led him to fund an unsuccessful campaign challenger to commissioners Larry Rogers Jr. in 2024 and George Cardenas\u2019 opponent this year.<\/p>\n

\"LyonsLyons Township Assessor Pat Hynes, left, and Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi greet each other before a debate for the Democratic nomination for Cook County assessor at WFLD-Ch. 32, Feb. 18, 2026. (John J. Kim\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Hynes and his supporters say Kaegi has not taken accountability for the office\u2019s problems, ranging from miscalculations in the south and west suburbs in 2024 to missing new or renovated properties<\/a>. A handful of South and West Side elected officials backed Hynes<\/a> after last year\u2019s bills landed, casting doubt on the massive hikes to home values Kaegi set in neighborhoods like Englewood and North Lawndale. Though Kaegi\u2019s office said those values mirror sales prices and elected officials were briefed on looming assessment hikes, several said they were caught off guard and skeptical their homes could sell at the values Kaegi set.<\/p>\n

At an endorsement press conference for Hynes last month, former congressman Bobby Rush, once a Kaegi endorser, said Kaegi \u201ckeeps blaming everybody else when the problem rests solely with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

A longtime staffer in the unit in the assessor\u2019s office tasked with inspecting new and renovated properties, Hynes previously told the Tribune he quit midway through Kaegi\u2019s first term over frustrations with operations, including fewer inspections.<\/p>\n

Hynes comes from a family with deep roots in Cook County politics. His uncle, Thomas C. Hynes, was one of the most influential Democrats in Chicago, president of the Illinois Senate, a top member of the Democratic National Committee and 19th Ward Democratic committeeman. Most notably, he was county assessor from 1979 to 1997.<\/p>\n

Thomas Hynes\u2019 sons are Dan Hynes and Matt Hynes, the former serving at various points as state comptroller and deputy governor to JB Pritzker, and the latter as Mayor Rahm Emanuel\u2019s chief lobbyist.<\/p>\n

After working in the assessor\u2019s office since 1998, Pat Hynes was elected in 2021 to be Lyons Township assessor, a position in which he served as a taxpayer advocate helping with exemptions, assessment errors and permits.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s raised $2.3 million in campaign funds in his bid to unseat Kaegi over the past year and nearly $1 million since the start of this year alone, with major support from unions that rely on construction jobs, and from investor Michael Sacks and One Future Illinois PAC.<\/p>\n

Kaegi has taken particular issue with the $140,000 in donations Hynes has accepted from property tax appeals attorneys, arguing it undermines his credibility as a fair arbiter of value. Hynes\u2019 team is quick to point out Kaegi takes money from real estate developers and investors.<\/p>\n

Hynes raised the alarm about missing properties in his home turf of Lyons Township \u2014 lots with new homes, for example, that were assessed as if they were vacant \u2014 and began hunting down others across the county. What he found, he said, was evidence of operational failures under Kaegi that could cost homeowners thousands in back taxes and cause an unfair distribution of the tax burden.<\/p>\n

In all, a Tribune and Illinois Answers Project investigation found Kaegi\u2019s office had missed 620 new or renovated properties across the county. Kaegi\u2019s office said such errors were rare and fixing them had a small impact on others\u2019 bills. The office blamed technological and organizational issues while pointing the finger at municipal leaders who failed to forward permit information to trigger an inspection.<\/p>\n

Kaegi argues he\u2019s delivered on his main campaign promises, pointing to a recent University of Chicago study<\/a> that concluded residential assessments have become more fair during his tenure and a separate study<\/a> finding appeals to the board made assessments less accurate. That same commercial study found suburban businesses were assessed too low compared with their actual sale prices between 2020 and 2022, and that appeals to the Board of Review pushed them lower. It also found Kaegi initially assessed Chicago commercial properties too high in 2021.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s successfully advocated for creating new incentives for affordable housing construction and automatically renewing a program that freezes property values<\/a> for some seniors, heading off big bill spikes from rising property values.<\/p>\n

Other reform efforts from Kaegi to get better data or offer relief for homeowners have come up short. He has failed for years to convince state lawmakers to pass a state data modernization bill compelling commercial properties to give up more information about their buildings. He has hopes for more modest legislation this year.<\/p>\n

A \u201ccircuit breaker\u201d program Kaegi supports, giving tax credits to low-income homeowners with big bill spikes, has also failed to find footing in Springfield amid tight budgets. And the push from Kaegi and other county assessors to get federal appraisal records to provide better property characteristic data for local homes has also taken years.<\/p>\n

Hynes\u2019 focus on missing properties and rising bills is a prominent part of his campaign website, which includes a map of over 700 properties worth $1.7 billion \u201cthat is not on the tax rolls.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Tribune review of the pins as of mid-February found all but 42 were already caught and accurately updated on the assessor\u2019s current rolls. Kaegi\u2019s office said all 42 were either due for a field inspection or were in the process of being updated.<\/p>\n

Asked to respond to the characterization that the 700 properties were currently \u201cmissing,\u201d Hynes spokeswoman Becky Carroll said in an email the locations\u2019 popups \u201cclearly show when the property was built and when it was finally assessed,\u201d and the map was meant to demonstrate lost tax values from prior years that the county can\u2019t recoup because of Kaegi\u2019s errors.<\/p>\n

Kaegi\u2019s campaign has in turn highlighted an error from Hynes\u2019 camp: a social media ad with Micaela, identified as a homeowner from the village of Lansing who holds her bill and says \u201cmy property taxes have doubled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaegi campaign spokesman Louis Di Paolo called the ad an \u201cabject lie\u201d and noted records show the woman in the ad, Micaela Smith, does not own the home nor has the property tax bill doubled. Smith is a village trustee also running for state representative. At its lowest point during Kaegi\u2019s tenure, the home\u2019s total bill for 2022 was $9,470, according to treasurer records. It climbed to $11,978 in 2023 and $12,809 in 2024.<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement, Smith said she is her parents\u2019 caregiver and pays their taxes, \u201cand if I wasn\u2019t in the picture, my parents would never be able to stay in their home or cover the property tax hikes that ballooned under Kaegi.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ad\u2019s \u201cdoubling\u201d language, Carroll said, is meant to refer to Smith\u2019s spike in monthly escrow costs, which include principal, interest, taxes and insurance. \u201cMany other taxpayers in the Southland have communicated the same thing at the same time,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n

The Hynes campaign has also defended an ad that calls Kaegi\u2019s assessment of his own home into question. In 2023, the Tribune reported<\/a> Kaegi\u2019s assessment dropped while others in the neighborhood climbed. But that\u2019s because Kaegi tattled on himself in 2020, requesting an inspection to make sure a 700 square foot addition was included in his value. That shot his assessment up to $1.1 million, the highest of its class in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

His bill rose because of that 2020 change from about $28,000 in 2019 to nearly $43,000. After his home\u2019s assessment dropped slightly in 2023, Kaegi\u2019s bill fell to just over $36,000 \u2014 still among the highest among similar properties in his neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Hynes said the sudden increase to Kaegi\u2019s home assessment was out of line with the neighborhood and the resultant break was unfair, an example of the volatility of Kaegi\u2019s assessments.<\/p>\n

\u201cPredictability\u201d is Hynes\u2019 refrain. He promises to not only clean up the office\u2019s \u201cgarbage\u201d data by updating internal records to better reflect conditions on the ground, but also launch an economic development office that would offer developers an estimate of their tax burden so they can underwrite construction loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to build a 200,000-square-foot warehouse, 1,000-square-foot warehouse. There\u2019s no reason that the county assessor can\u2019t model that for you, give you a score,\u201d he said at a mid-February forum hosted by the Civic Federation. Hynes hopes fresh \u201cconfidence in the market\u201d will usher in more investment, bringing in new properties to further spread out the tax burden.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are chasing away investment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re closing small businesses that have to operate in the margins, and we\u2019re causing homeowners, frankly, to lose their homes outside the margins.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Democratic primary contest for Cook County assessor pits a two-term millionaire running on systemic reform against a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":657189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[14670,14671,14672,64,14676,960,14678,5404,14679,14720,90,14685,11612,14686,9287,8413,5386,1818,2765,14694,1370,14695,14696,50,14699,14700,11210,14703,14704,80,4329],"class_list":["post-657188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-barrington","tag-berwyn","tag-blue-island","tag-business","tag-calumet-city","tag-chicago","tag-cicero","tag-cook-county","tag-country-club-hills","tag-daily-southtown","tag-elections","tag-elmwood-park","tag-evanston","tag-franklin-park","tag-glenview","tag-harvey","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-keywee","tag-lansing","tag-latest-headlines","tag-lincolnwood","tag-markham","tag-news","tag-niles","tag-norridge","tag-oak-lawn","tag-oak-park","tag-orland-park","tag-politics","tag-real-estate"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116232739071036942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657188","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=657188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}