On March 22nd, North Branch Works welcomed Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and his team to our Industrial Business Council meeting held at mHUB.
Assessor Kaegi and Thomas (TJ) Schemmel, Director of Commercial Valuations, presented an overview of the complex process which leads to the creation of property tax bills and took questions from audience members.
The Assessor’s office undertakes a triennial assessment of 1.9 million parcels in Cook County. Property assessments are one part of the process in which taxing authorities levy taxes and the Cook County Clerk calculates the local tax rates which are applied to the assessed values to generate the tax bills.
Chicago was last reassessed in 2021 which had a major impact on tax bills received in 2022.
Assessor Kaegi and Mr. Schemmel highlighted the efforts to use a data driven approach to assessing properties using past appeal documents, Bloomberg, CoStar, Moody’s REIS, and many other sources in order to accurately value properties. They stressed their commitment to transparency and have met with many community groups throughout the city, many of which have experienced substantial increases in property valuations.
They acknowledge that their office does not always get valuations correct and encouraged property owners to reach out to them and to use the appeal process.
Assessor Kaegi recommended all property owners complete the Real Property Income and Expense (RPIE) form which provides valuable qualitative data about properties which can impact the initial assessments.
After the presentation Assessor Kaegi and Mr. Schemmel answered questions from the audience consisting of owner-occupier property owners, developers, real estate professionals, developers, and nonprofit organizations helping business owners throughout Chicago.
One owner-occupied business owner commented on the 400% increase in their assessed value which has impacted their business. Assessor Kaegi’s team met with them to discuss the assessments in order to make sure they were correctly assessed.
The Assessor repeated that the RPIE is the best tool for property owners to provide information up front which can impact their property’s assessment.
NBW would like to thank mHUB for providing the space for this important meeting. NBW would also like to recognize the Local Industrial Retention Initiative (LIRI) program from the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development which supports NBW and nonprofits throughout the city.
