The Assessor determines what every property is worth. Taxing bodies (schools, parks, municipal governments) decide how much money they need to raise. Your tax bill is your share of what the taxing bodies levy, based on your property’s value. 

Here’s the problem: The Assessor’s office is just one piece of a multi-step process. After Fritz assesses properties fairly, machine politicians on the Board of Review hear appeals — mostly from big commercial properties — and give out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tax breaks to corporations. When big commercial properties pay less, homeowners have to pay more to make up the difference.

Two main reasons. First, local taxing bodies keep increasing how much money they levy each year. Fritz has pushed for more state funding to bring down local tax rates. 

Second, the Board of Review commissioners keep handing out excessive tax breaks to corporations. On the latest tax bills, those giveaways cost homeowners an extra $700. Fritz assesses properties fairly, but he can’t control what the Board of Review commissioners do during the appeals process that follows.

Fritz ended decades of pay-to-play corruption where politically connected property tax lawyers got special deals for their clients. He properly assessed mansions and luxury properties that were paying way less than they should. That's saved homeowners almost $2 billion.

Fritz expanded the Senior Freeze and added automatic renewals so taxpayers don't lose benefits because of missed paperwork. He's held more than 200 community events to help homeowners understand appeals and exemptions. And his office has won national awards for accuracy and transparency — the first time Cook County has ever been recognized this way.

The other county offices responsible for sending out tax bills upgraded to a new technology system this year, which caused delays across the system. Fritz’s office was ahead of the curve, upgrading to the new computer system in 2021 and finishing this year’s assessments on time. 

Fritz is pushing for “Circuit Breaker” legislation that would protect homeowners when property taxes spike, like they did this year. He's working to expand the Senior Freeze and make it automatically renew so more seniors can stay in their homes. And he's fighting to close the loopholes the Board of Review commissioners use to give corporations tax breaks they don't deserve.