Politics
Two-Term Incumbent Fritz Kaegi Concedes to Pat Hynes in Cook County Assessor’s Race
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, left, and Lyons Township Assessor Pat Hynes. (Campaign photos)
Stay updated on local news. Sign up for the Daily Chicagoan newsletter.
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi has conceded defeat to Pat Hynes, a one-time employee of the two-term incumbent’s office.
With more than 86% of the vote reported, Hynes was leading with 52.5% to Kaegi’s 47.5% in a Democratic primary contest in a race that was defined by an intense debate over soaring property tax bills.
In a speech to supporters, Hynes plotted out his priorities.
“The work ahead is about fairness and justice for those who have been harmed over the last eight years,” Hynes said. “It is about ensuring assessments are accurate, transparent and equitable in every neighborhood.”
Kaegi conceded defeat and congratulated Hynes.
“I am so proud of what we accomplished together,” Kaegi’s statement reads. “We cleaned up decades of pay-to-play corruption. We banned donations from property tax attorneys. We brought in real data scientists and put our models online. We made assessments fairer and saved working class homeowners $2 billion compared to what they would have paid under the old system. We got tax relief to a record number of seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities and made their exemptions automatically renew. We made this office operate on fairness, not favoritism.”
Kaegi, who was first elected in 2018 by vowing to overhaul the county’s unjust and error-ridden property tax assessment system, has sought to shift more of the county’s property tax burden to businesses, arguing that homeowners are paying too much.
Hynes, who had the endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Party, said Kaegi has introduced new errors into the system used to figure out the value of each of Cook County’s 1.8 million parcels while handicapping businesses struggling to stay afloat.
Hynes also had the support of the Chicago Federation of Labor, building trade unions and the Building Owners and Managers Association, which represents downtown office building owners and has emerged as Kaegi’s leading critics.
Hynes will face Libertarian candidate Nico Tsatsoulis in the Nov. 3 general election. No Republican filed to run in the race.
The median homeowners in 15 neighborhoods on Chicago’s West and South sides saw their property tax bills rise an average of 30% this year, according to a study released by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas’ office.
The study blames the increase in property tax bills for homeowners on the declining value of properties in the Loop, where the commercial real estate market was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote work.
Hynes, who was elected Lyons Township assessor after quitting Kaegi’s office during his first term, sought to capitalize on those increases, blaming Kaegi.
But Kaegi blamed the Cook County Board of Review, a government agency made up of three elected commissioners, which frequently rules in favor of commercial property owners who object to Kaegi’s determination of their properties’ value, reducing their tax bills.
A University of Chicago study concluded residential assessments have become fairer under Kaegi’s watch, while finding that Kaegi initially assessed Chicago commercial properties too high in 2021.
Hynes also blamed Kaegi for the four-month delay in 2024’s second installment property tax bills by an overhaul of the county’s property tax system plagued with problems, as first reported by the Chicago Tribune and Injustice Watch. Kaegi’s office did not contribute to the delay, records show.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
