Nico Tsatsoulis

Candidate Q&A

Why are you running? 

This is my third time running.  I run for Cook County Assessor in 2022 and got over 200,000 votes and I run for Commissioner of the Board of Review for the 3rd District that includes most of the south side and got over 80,000 votes.

I am running because the property tax system in Cook county is broken.  Assessments are arbitrary, volatile and subjective.  Taxes have been going up.  People have no idea what kind of tax bill they will get.  Illinois has the highest effective property tax rate in the nation at 1.83% and at the same time we have state sales and income taxes. 

I am a victim of the broken system myself.  I bought a property for $195,000 and the Cook County assessor wanted me to pay $110,000 a year in taxes.  Then the property tax lawyers wanted a third of the so-called “savings” just to bring my assessment down to its real value.  

The assessor’s office and the property tax lawyers are tacitly working together in what is a classic form of “Institutionalized Corruption” at the expense of the property owners.  There is an immense transfer of wealth from property owners to property tax lawyers with the assistance of the assessor.  And those who cannot afford to pay a lawyer (and these are disproportionally minorities), just pay more to the government.  

The system is broken and I am proposing a drastic change.  Limit property taxes to 1% of the value of the property.

What skills or experience do you have that make you particularly suited to this position?

1. My most important attribute is that I am not a Democrat politician.  And I am very serious about this.  Democrats have ruled for the past three generations in Cook County and the results regarding property taxes have been devastating.  This is extremely important because Democratic politicians have on the aggregate doubled, and in some case tripled and quadrupled,  our property taxes in a span of a few years.   
2. I am not part of the elaborate corrupt scheme that for years transfers money from property owners to property tax lawyers.  I am a victim.
3. I am not a career politician and I do not depend on the continuation of this broken system to make a living.   My motivation is to inform my fellow citizens about the endemic corruption and help develop an equitable and just system.
4. Nobody has slatted me, I get no donations from individuals, groups, PACs or Super PACs.  I am as free as it gets and I am trying to represent the average Joe which is who I am.  This is why the system hates me and fears me although I am powerless.  But many people who represent the system are not only corrupt, but they are also idiots.  (These attributes often go together)
5. Finally, I have the common sense to recognize that the market can provide the best assessment values and not a clueless bureaucrat who uses a computerized mass appraisal property valuation system.

What does this office do well, and what needs fixing?  

This office does nothing well and needs drastic overhaul.  It is the epitome of bureaucracy versus common sense and reason.  The present assessor uses computer-generated appraisal techniques to derive assessments that may or may not reflect the fair value of a property.  Instead of using Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) Systems and ratio studies that result in outrageous, volatile and arbitrary outcomes, the office should be using market values to determine assessments.  These techniques (CAMA, ratio studies, etc.) may be highly effective in maximizing tax revenues but often prove to be highly ineffective in producing results that are close to the market value of the assessed property. These mass appraisals, by virtue of their mass, non-property-specific nature, result in wide value discrepancies among similar assets and volatile, unpredictable, and unjustified swings in assessed values.  

The assessment industry has failed to come up with reasonable ways to assess properties.  They pretend that it is a science but at best it is an art and there are not many good artists around.  The market is the best indicator of property values.  Assessors should be using market values as assessment values.  But usually, they don’t because that would make their army of employees redundant and would give them less leeway to favor their preferred constituents.

What is the most pressing issue facing your constituents and how do you plan on addressing it? 

On November 14, 2025, the Cook County Treasurer’s Office mailed the 2024 Second Installment property tax bills.  In West Garfield Park, the median homeowner tax bill jumped nearly $2,000 – an increase of 133%, the largest in the county. North Lawndale saw increases of nearly $1,900, or 99%. In Englewood, bills rose 82%.  In 2024, the combined property tax levies of Chicago-area governments grew by $528.6 million, reaching $8.87 billion.  Combined property tax levies for the 2024 tax year in Cook County rose by nearly $872 million, reaching a total of $19.2 billion, a 4.8% increase over the previous year. This 31st consecutive annual increase, heavily driven by school districts, resulted in a record 16.7% rise in median residential tax bills. Chicago Public Schools accounted for nearly half that increase, raising its levy by $232 million to almost $4.25 billion. During the past two years, CPS property taxes rose by $425 million.

Downtown buildings are being decimated in value: 

• 175 W. Jackson St. sold for $308 million in 2018 and $41 million in 2026
• 300 W. Adams St. sold for $38 million in 2011 and $4 million in 2024
• 600 W. Chicago Ave sold for $510 million in 2018 and $89 million in 2025
• 70 W. Madison St. sold for $375 million in 2014 and $85 million in 2025
• 525 W. Van Buren St sold for $135 million in 2015 and $35 million in 2025

What a recipe for disaster.  Politicians asking for more money while values are dropping like rocks.

Is there a major policy initiative or financial issue you will look to tackle in the next year? 

Career politicians decide the tax levies according to how much money they want to spend.  We need to work the other way around.  We need to tax property owners according to how much money they can afford to pay.  We need to cap property taxes to 1% of the market value of our homes, limit reassessments to when a property is sold and between sales adjust for inflation.  Politicians will have to limit spending or find other sources of revenue.  Over taxation of property should be taken off the table. 

Voting for me means that you want the legislature to impose those limits.  Voting for Nico is like a referendum on property taxes.  If I get elected, legislators will change the law the next day, because more than anything else they care about themselves and retaining their positions, so they won’t go against the public sentiment who will demand change.  

I am the only candidate supporting this position, which is similar to California’s Proposition 13.  My opponent only cares to propagate the existing system of milking the taxpayer.  This system is a product of the Democratic machine and its representatives and they will do anything to maintain it and keep it running in perpetuity.  If you want change in the form of limiting property taxes to 1% you have to vote for Nico Tsatsoulis.

If you are elected, what would the end of a successful four-year term look like for you?    

The Cook County combined property tax levy will come down from $19.2 billion to less than $10 billion a year.  Effective property tax rates will be at 1% of the real value of our homes and properties.  Reassessments will be limited to when a property is sold and between sales will be adjusted for inflation.  With this objective way to value properties, appeals will be limited drastically and most property tax lawyers will move to other areas of the law or of the country.  Institutionalized corruption will be drastically cut and there will be no transfer of money from property owners to politically connected property tax lawyers.  Donations to compromised assessors will cease to exist since the subjectivity in valuing properties will be eliminated.  Politicians will learn about efficiency and productivity, having to do with less money than during the previous period of unchecked profligate spending at the expense of the property owners.

What specific steps would you take to ensure your office is accessible and responsive?

Today taxpayers need lawyers to bring down the over inflated assessments coming out of the assessor’s office. Whoever cannot afford a lawyer has to accept the inflated assessment.  We are all victims, the poor who cannot afford the lawyers and the middle class and the rich who pay exorbitant fees and are forced to transfer their wealth to these lawyers.  Only those who contribute to the assessor’s campaign are sparred like billionaires Joe Mansueto and Fred Eychaner.  Check out my website NicoTheAssessor.com for more information about this outrageous corruption scheme. 

I get no donations.  My office is and will be accessible and responsive to all, especially so because my office will have very little to do.  Taking the subjectivity out of the assessment process and installing objective criteria will decrease the need for intervention.  I am sure my opponents hate that.  But we know better!  

A vote for me is like a referendum that you and I want to change the broken system.  That we want property taxes to be limited to 1% of our property’s market value. Vote for change.  Vote for Nico Tsatsoulis for Cook County Assessor.