“Many homeowners are going to be shocked and angry when they get their bills,” Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said.
Taxes
Property tax bills for Cook County residents are available online at cookcountytreasurer.com and should hit mailboxes this week.
DraftKings, FanDuel and other betting apps are facing a bigger tax hit in Illinois following changes to tax policy this year. New Jersey, Massachusetts and other states have also tried to raise taxes on the industry or plan to.
For low- and middle-class families feeling the pressures from the rising costs of living, the passing of a state-level child tax credit is a “big win,” said Ameya Pawar, a senior advisor at Economic Security Project and former alderperson of Chicago's 47th Ward.
“Illinois cannot simply hope that its remaining fiscal challenges will disappear on their own,” the Civic Federation says in a new report. “They will not until they are addressed head on.”
Last week’s announcement of a proposed new domed, lakeside stadium brought with it more questions. Namely, the price tag.
The approval represents a major win for Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has touted the proposal as a way to make Chicago a more equitable place to live by “investing in people” and expanding the city’s economic capacity — without raising taxes on Chicago property owners.
Tax Day reveals a major split in how Joe Biden and Donald Trump would govern: The presidential candidates have conflicting ideas about how much to reveal about their own finances and the best ways to boost the economy through tax policy.
Civic Federation President Joseph Ferguson called the complicated proposal to phase out the city’s decades-long reliance on tax increment financing districts, known as TIFs, “sensible” and “responsible.”
After 12,634 mail-in ballots were counted by Chicago election officials late Friday, the results were essentially unchanged. Approximately 53% of voters rejected Ballot Question No. 1, better known as Bring Chicago Home, according to unofficial totals.
The mayor has touted the proposal as a fulfillment of a promise he made during the 2023 campaign to make Chicago a more equitable place to live by “investing in people” and expanding the city’s economic capacity — without raising taxes on Chicago property owners.
“No one said it was going to be easy,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “I’m very much committed. The fight still goes on. We’re going to keep organizing.”
The last time Chicago voters passed a binding referendum that applied to the entire city was 1885, when they voted to create the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, according to city records.
With three of the seven justices abstaining, the state’s highest court rejected an appeal from a coalition of real estate and development groups that sued the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners to knock the ballot measure off Tuesday’s ballot.
A coalition of the real estate and development groups asked the Illinois Supreme Court to reverse an appellate court ruling that overturned a decision by Cook County Judge Kathleen Burke that blocked the Chicago Board of Elections from counting votes for and against the proposal, known as Bring Chicago Home.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Appellate Court unanimously overturned the Feb. 23 decision by a Cook County judge that invalidated the binding ballot question known as Bring Chicago Home. The ruling could still be appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.
