Cook County's second-installment tax bills will be coming later this year

For the last nine years, Cook County's second-installment property tax bills have been sent on time, with tax bills hitting mailboxes in late June and due around Aug. 1.

This year, however, the nine-year streak of on-time tax bills in Cook County is coming to an end. It is more likely that second-installment tax bills this year will be due on Sept. 1.

There are a number of steps that must take place before second-installment tax bills can be calculated and mailed, the most important of which is that all Cook County tax appeals must be resolved. Once the appeals are resolved, it typically takes state and county agencies about two months to do all the calculations and printing necessary to mail out bills.

Last year, the final tax appeals were resolved on May 5, and tax bills were mailed around July 1. But this year, pandemic-related issues slowed the processing of appeals, so current ones were not resolved until June 14.

If the agencies that calculate and print tax bills can work faster than they did last year, tax bills will be mailed at the end of July and will be due Sept. 1. But there is no guarantee that they will be able to finish their work that quickly. If the agencies take longer, the due date for second installment tax bills will be after Sept. 1.