Cook County tax bills late for 34th straight year

The second installment of Cook County's property tax bills will be mailed out late for the 34th consecutive year, but earlier than the past few years.

That's if everything goes as planned, according to Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.

Pappas said her office expects to mail out the notices to collect the remaining 45 percent of residential and commercial property taxes “the first week of October.” The payment deadline hasn't been set yet. The due date, Pappas said, will be set when she knows for sure when the bills are being mailed.

The past few years, the due date has been Dec. 1, which is problematic for many taxing bodies, especially school districts. Many school districts have Dec. 1 deadlines for making debt payments. If the districts haven't received the portions of the tax bills due to them by that date, they may have to borrow. And that could cost taxpayers even more money.

Pappas said if the bills are mailed in early October, then logic would dictate the payment deadline would be early November.

The difficulty over mailing out tax bills is an annual occurrence because it involves not only Pappas' office, but the county's Board of Review and assessor's office. Pappas has to rely on information from those offices before she can mail out the notices.

Even the first installments are often delayed. This year the state legislature took the extraordinary step of actually passing a law changing the first installment due date for just this year from March 1 to April 1.