School, library officials demand Cook County step up tax payments

School officials and library directors descended upon a Cook County Board committee Wednesday to express their frustration at the delay in receiving tax revenues.

In testimony before the board’s Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, they made it clear patience is wearing thin.

The hearing addressed the broader dysfunction within the county property tax infrastructure, as testimony was also given by a representative from the Cook County Treasurer’s office and an employee from the troubled software vendor Tyler Technologies.

This week, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced plans to reopen the county’s Property Tax Bridge Fund Program. The program would make available up to $300 million in no-interest, short-term loans available to eligible taxing districts, pending board approval in July.

But officials from school and library districts that have borne the brunt of delays sounded a note of urgency.

For Diana McCluskey, chief school business official for Palatine Township Elementary School District 15, it was her third time appearing before the board on the same issue.

“My district has lost approximately $4 million due to this unfortunate situation,” she said. “Where are we going to make up that from? We aren’t a corporation.”

McCluskey’s leveled some harsh words at commissioners.

“If any of us speaking here from the school districts did anything close to what is happening here, we would lose our jobs.”

Mary Gorr, superintendent of Mount Prospect Elementary School District 57, said the districts work closely with their taxpayers to make sure they are meeting and exceeding their expectations.

“This is increasingly difficult to do when we do not have hundreds of thousand of dollars that are paid by the property taxes of our community,” she said.

David Byrnes, chief of staff for Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, said the difficulties stem from the Tyler tax system.

Payments from 2024 and 2025, for example, are commingled in the system, so even when money has been collected, the treasurer's office cannot tell a library or school district exactly how much of what they received came from which tax year.

“If I send out to a library district $750,000, we do not have the detail at the agency level to determine how much of that $750,000 was from 2024 or 2025 or even a prior year from an open item bill that was paid,” he said. “That’s the level of detail that we’re seeking Tyler to give us.”

Tuesday, county officials warned second-installment tax bills would be delayed by about two months because of ongoing issues with the Tyler system.