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Commissioners in the second-most populous US county have green-lit large payments to residents who are struggling to make ends meet.
The Board of Commissioners in Cook County, Illinois has approved a program that will send $1,000 payments to selected households battling elevated property taxes amid a “substantial increase” in tax bills in recent years.
The Cook County Homeowner Relief Fund’s application process is expected to be launched in the summer.
“In order to be eligible, households must have an income at or below 100 percent of the Area Median Income for their respective household size.
Under these guidelines, for example, a four-person household making $119,900 or less would be eligible. Applicants must have also seen their property tax bill increase by at least 50 percent in any year since the 2021 tax year.”
The program, known as the Cook County Homeowner Relief Fund, has a total budget of $15 million. The homeowner relief fund, however, would reportedly cost $1.4 million to run, leaving $13.6 million to be distributed.
Public hearings were held with property owners beginning in September of 2024, before the approval of the Cook County Homeowner Relief Fund. According to Commissioner Bridget Gainer, the problem of ballooning property taxes in the Illinois county is severe.
“Property taxes are rising faster than homeowners’ ability to pay, forcing people to leave neighborhoods they love and undermining the best ability to build wealth – home ownership.”
The president of the Cook County Board, Toni Preckwinkle, says offering one-time payments to help in paying property taxes is, however, a stopgap measure while the leadership pursues a long-term solution.
