Chicago Area Grapples With Property-Tax Growth Double Inflation

Chicago-area residents are facing some of the country’s highest property taxes, with bills surging at double the inflation rate over the past 30 years, according to a study released Monday.

Property owners paid $19.2 billion in taxes in 2024, a jump of nearly 182% since 1995, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said in a statement published with the analysis. Inflation in the county, which is home to Chicago and 134 other suburban municipalities, rose by less than 91% in the period.

The increases are a sore point for the constituents of Pappas, a Democrat who plans to run for mayor of Chicago in 2027. While the levy is set by local governments, the increases could also deepen Illinois’ reputation as a high-tax state — bad news for Governor JB Pritzker, who’s seeking a third term and is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028.

“I see it every day in my office, with people wondering how they are going to pay their tax bills or even whether they can stay in their homes,” Pappas said in the statement.

Illinois had the highest property levies of any state in 2023, and was second only to New Jersey in 2024, according to data from the Tax Foundation.

Taxing bodies, like schools districts, the city and the county determine the overall amount that property owners must pay. Then the county assessor determines real estate values for all properties, which decides how the amount will be split among property owners.

Controversial System

The tax system has become so controversial that donors including from the real estate industry spent more than $1.4 million on this month’s Democratic primary for the county’s assessor, successfully defeating incumbent Fritz Kaegi, who was first elected to the post in 2018.

Local school districts accounted for 55% of county property taxes in 2024. The districts’ portion of the tax bill jumped to $10.5 billion from $3.64 billion over the same 30-year period, according to the report.

Chicago, the nation’s third-biggest city, has long struggled with financial woes. Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat who’s a former public school teacher, faced a $1.2 billion deficit in this year’s budget, and preliminary estimates show a gap of $1 billion that he’ll need to close in the 2027 fiscal cycle. He has resisted cuts to city services and has sought to raise additional revenue.

Pappas called for Pritzker, a fellow Democrat, as well state and local lawmakers to create a reform plan. Illinois has a law on the books, the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, that was established in 1991 to limit annual property-tax increases to the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is lower. However, local governments have seized on loopholes in the law, Pappas said, allowing for increases at a higher rate.