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❖ A truth room · always Charter

Where your dollar goes

The split and the bond card below are design samples — your real local figures arrive when the county data pipeline ships. The federal dollar, with real FY2024 figures and their sources, is already at the whole federal dollar.

SchoolsDistrict + county levy

Public safetyFire, police, dispatch

Roads & waterRepair and utilities

Parks & libraryOperating costs

Debt serviceBonds already voted

AdministrationClerk, audit, elections

On your bill, in plain words

The 2024 school bond adds $8.10 a month to a median parcel. It ends in 2031 unless a new vote extends it.

Check your own parcel — the number is computed on your device and never stored.

Your bill

The paper in your hand, line by line

The notice and the bill are two different papers from two different offices. The notice says what your home is worth. The bill says what you owe.

What is on it

Cook County, Illinois
Property Index Number (PIN)

This is your home's number. The county uses it to tell your home from every other one. Find it first. Every other step needs it.

“It contains your home's Property Index Number (PIN), characteristics, estimated fair market value, and assessed value.”
The county’s own page, read 2026-09-17
What the county thinks your home is

A list of what the county has on file. How big. How many rooms. How many baths. Read every line. A wrong line here can make the rest of the paper wrong.

“It contains your home's Property Index Number (PIN), characteristics, estimated fair market value, and assessed value.”
The county’s own page, read 2026-09-17
Estimated fair market value

What the county thinks your home would sell for. This is a guess made by an office, not a price anyone paid.

“It contains your home's Property Index Number (PIN), characteristics, estimated fair market value, and assessed value.”
The county’s own page, read 2026-09-17
Assessed value

A share of the value above. In Cook County a home is assessed at one tenth of what the county thinks it is worth. This is the number the tax is worked out from.

“For residential property owners, the assessed value equals 10% of the fair market value of the home. For most commercial property owners, the assessed value is 25% of the fair market value.”
The county’s own page, read 2026-09-17
Exemptions

Money taken off before the tax is worked out. There is one for the home you live in. There are others for age, for service, and more. Check which ones are on your paper.

“It also contains a list of exemptions applied to this property in the past few years.”
The county’s own page, read 2026-09-17
The tax rate

This is not set by the office that valued your home. Schools and other local bodies say how much money they need. That is called a levy. The levy and the value of everything near you make the rate.

“Property taxes are used to pay the levies set by local taxing bodies. Your assessed value determines your share of those levies relative to the total assessed value of your area. The levies and the total assessed value of an area determine your local tax rate.”
The county’s own page, read 2026-09-17
What you owe, and when

The bill comes from a different office than the notice. In Cook County it comes twice a year. The first part is due in March. The second is due in August.

“Your annual tax bill comes from the County Treasurer's Office in two installments: the first installment is due in March, and the second installment is due in August.”
The county’s own page, read 2026-09-17
The last date to appeal

If you want to argue the value, there is a window. It is printed on your own notice. We will not guess it, because a wrong date costs you a year.

“Typically, you have 30 days to file an appeal after receiving your reassessment notice. The last date to file an appeal for that year is printed on your notice.”
The county’s own page, read 2026-09-16

If my assessment goes up, does my bill go up?

Not always. The value is only one part. What the schools and other local bodies ask for is the other part.

“Not necessarily. The assessed value of your property is only one factor in determining your property taxes. Your total tax levy, set by local taxing bodies like schools, is an important factor in setting your tax rate.”
The county’s own page

The lines are named the same way nearly everywhere, because they are the steps of the same arithmetic. The NUMBERS and the DATES are local, and this page never guesses either -- it points at the paper in your hand.

Appealing it

If the number on that bill looks wrong, there is a way to challenge it, and it has a deadline that moves by county. Understand your property tax, and how to appeal it — plain words, one step at a time. We explain the line; we never file anything for you and nobody can tell you how it will turn out.