Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced today that she has commissioned a full review of Cook County’s property tax system. The review was spurred by recent reports asserting that inequities exist in the way property taxes in Cook County are administered. Administration of property taxes should be fair and equitable, Preckwinkle said, and questions about whether the system lacks fairness can serve to undermine faith in the system. As such, it is necessary to have an unbiased third party undertake a full review on how the property tax system works, including evaluating the functions performed by separately elected officials, such as the Cook County Assessor’s Office and the Board of Review.

As part of this undertaking, President Preckwinkle has asked an outside organization to develop a scope of work for review which will tap property assessment experts from our region and throughout the country. The scope of their work should provide a framework for a full-system analysis by expert third parties. She has asked the Civic Consulting Alliance, a pro-bono leader in public-private collaboration, to assist in the development of this scope of work to be done. “The Civic Consulting Alliance has worked with my administration since I took office to sort through complex organizational, operational and policy matters,” Preckwinkle said. “I am grateful that they have accepted this project.”