The Cook County Treasurer’s Office conducted an analysis of 2020 property taxes, which shows that Black and Latino property owners are bearing the brunt of 2020’s property tax increases.
The analysis also showed that:
- Commercial and industrial property owners in Cook County – in its suburbs and in Chicago – are carrying a heavier share of the increased tax burden. Businesses are being billed more than $7 billion, an increase of $410 million, or 6.2%. Homeowners are being billed $8.9 billion, an increase of $114 million, or 1.3%.
- Property tax increases are hitting majority Black and Latino communities – both their homeowners and businesses – the hardest. These communities make up six of the top 10 areas with the largest tax increases for homeowners and seven of the top 10 increase for commercial properties.
- In the south suburbs, where taxes are already greater than in other parts of Cook County, some property owners are paying three to five times as much in taxes as the owner of an equally valued property in Chicago.