Late property tax bills weren’t just an inconvenience for homeowners and businesses, they were a drag on taxing districts around Cook County, to the collective tune of almost $122 million for school districts alone, according to a group of suburban school leaders.
Bills that typically land in the summer weren’t paid until mid-December thanks to a halting technology upgrade. Additional problems with the system prevented the county from distributing those revenues to hundreds of taxing bodies.
To bridge the gap in the meantime, school districts — particularly wealthier ones whose budgets rely more heavily on property taxes than on state aid — had to take out loans, cash out investments or forgo other investment income that would have built up on property tax revenues parked in the bank, the Tribune previously reported.
According to a group of school leaders who have been surveying colleagues countywide, the interest and issuance cost of borrowing, plus cashed out and lost interest on investments, totaled $59.5 million for suburban school districts and $62.2 million for Chicago Public Schools.
About 60% of districts — including CPS — responded directly to the survey with their costs. For the rest, interest returns were estimated based on prior tax returns, calculated by the financial services firms PTMA and Raymond James.
Those school leaders said the estimates were conservative and did not include any data past Dec. 28, or estimates of borrowing costs for districts that didn’t respond.
The superintendents of West Northfield School District 31 and Mount Prospect School District 57 wrote to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Treasurer Maria Pappas on Monday morning with those statistics and requested meetings “to gain a clearer understanding of what specifically went wrong, what steps are being taken to address and remediate the harm caused, and what assurances can be provided to prevent a situation like this from occurring again in the future.”
Tyler Technologies’ upgrade to the county’s property tax system — moving decades of data off of aging mainframe computers and into a new system — has been plagued for several years by repeated setbacks and finger-pointing over who was to blame.
Preckwinkle’s Bureau of Technology commissioned and helps to manage the project, but the county clerk, assessor and treasurer have been tasked with on-the-ground execution over the years. The County Board approved the project, and its members have been bearing the brunt of complaints about distributions for several weeks.
More Top Picks How To Help A Dyslexic Child With Spelling
West Northfield Superintendent Erin Murphy and Mount Prospect Superintendent Mary Gorr wrote, “While we recognize that there have been significant challenges related to the implementation of systems managed by Tyler Technologies, there is no question that Cook County bears responsibility for its continued oversight, monitoring, and use of that system, as well as for the lack of clear, proactive communication regarding delays, timelines, and expectations.”
In a statement, Preckwinkle spokesperson Cara Yi said Preckwinkle had not yet seen the districts’ email, but noted: “the Treasurer is responsible for distributions and for communicating with local taxing jurisdictions on the status of distributions. The president understands the concerns the school districts have, which is why she continues to push for coordination between all the property tax offices. She also continues to convene all the property tax offices on reform efforts.”
Some taxing districts received a partial “workaround” distribution from Pappas’ office in late December, with another following shortly after. That was essentially a direct deposit made outside the Tyler system.
Smaller “subagencies,” including certain library districts, have not received any distributions.
On Monday afternoon, Pappas told the Tribune that full distributions through Tyler’s system would begin on a rolling basis this week and continue over the next three weeks. She said she gave her cellphone number directly to both school leaders to keep in touch.
Even after distributions are settled, “three significant system issues remain unresolved,” Pappas’ office said in a written statement. There are still 8,000 property tax bills that have not yet been sent out “due to a system defect.”
The office has also been holding on to $168 million in refunds owed to taxpayers from missed exemptions, duplicate and overpayments since May. “Lastly, the office can’t conduct the state-mandated annual tax sale because the system’s tax sale module has yet to be programmed,” Pappas’ office said.