Cook County property taxes rise more than $909M for 2022 tax year: Treasurer Maria Pappas' office

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The latest installment of Cook County property tax bills is online and being mailed out, and you may be one or the 1.3 million homeowners seeing a higher bill.

A new study from the Cook County Treasurer's Office found property taxes rose more than $900 million due to an increase in local government and school funding across the county. The study shows a raise from $16.7 billion to $17.6 billion in taxes, according to Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, who conducted the study with her team.

"There are over 900 different governments in Cook County," Pappas said. "And, of those 900 governments, 672 raised their taxes."

The areas with the largest increases were the north and northwest suburbs, with an increase of 15.7%. The increase is the largest its been in 30 years.

Pappas said you can look at your bill and see the breakdown of costs, as well as take complaints to your local school district or municipal leaders increasing budgets.

"When people complain, 'my bill went up, my bill went up,' at my counter, I say to them, 'did you vote?' The vast majority of the time, they say, 'no,' they didn't vote," Pappas said.

Pappas' study focuses on higher taxes mostly due to funding government agencies, but if you think your taxes went up because of a higher assessed value of your home, you can appeal with the Cook County Board of Review to potentially get a break on future bills.

"They can come to our agency," Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Larry Rogers Jr. said. "We will do investigation and research in terms of what assessments are in the area, but they are welcome to submit evidence such as appraisals and recent sales in the area."

Chicago Lawn resident Bernita Thomas said she plans to file an appeal on her taxes.

"It is a substantial increase," Thomas said. "I am a senior. I have a disability. I'm on a fixed income, and I just wasn't prepared for what I saw."

Cook County property tax bills are online now. The full study is also available on the Cook County Treasurer's website.