Cook Co. sending out millions in property tax refunds after year-long delay

CHICAGO (WLS) -- After a year of major delays to get Cook County property tax refund checks to residents, the ABC7 I-Team learned that the hold-ups are coming to an end and refund money is starting to get into the hands of taxpayers.

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The Cook County Treasurer credits AI experts.

ABC7 received exclusive video of Cook County property tax refund checks, hot off the presses.

The refunds are for assessment errors or exemptions.

Lorell Marin, the founder and CEO of the Quantum LEEP Academy, recently received more than $300,000 in refunds after we asked the Cook County Treasurer about her case

"It seems like once your involvement came, things sped up tremendously," Marin said.

Her tax-exempt school was mistakenly billed on back taxes. Her tax attorney says she's still owed another $387,000.

"It's been really, really hard and I thought we were going to have to close our doors," Marin said."

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas says the rest of Marin's refund is coming.

"Money's flying out of here," Pappas said.

Others are now getting paid, too. The Treasurer said refund money has been sent to South Barrington and 35 refund checks were sent to several of the property owners in Lyons township.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Thousands of Cook County homeowners waiting on $186M in refunds ahead of property tax bill deadline

"I understand people's anger, but I also understand what to do about it," Pappas said.

All of this comes after almost a year of county infighting, and the county blaming the hold-ups on the private company Tyler Technologies and its delayed system upgrades.

In the last I-Team report, Tyler said the improvements were a "generational" update and blamed delays on missing data from the county and the treasurer's office.

"They have no choice to attack the fact of the matter is they can't deliver," Pappas said.

Tyler Technologies said in a statement:

"We continue to work collaboratively with the county to ensure the Treasurer's Office is able to complete the refund process. The county has been unable to fully finalize refunds due to incomplete data it previously provided to Tyler."

In that year during the delays, the treasurer says $7 million did go out to 2,500 people.

Now, in recent weeks, $73 million has been paid.

Pappas says the dramatic increase is due to these two AI experts she recently hired.

"In the last six weeks, due to artificial intelligence, look at this 28,000 people have gotten $73 million. We are killing it," Pappas said.

Another $181 million in delayed refunds, the treasurer and her AI specialists say, could be out in four months.

The I-Team found that Tyler Technologies' contract with Cook County started more than 10 years ago and the county has paid them has paid more than $30 million, for the Property Tax System contract in question.

That doesn't include millions more the county has paid to Tyler, for other contracts.