How we're making the Assessor's Office more accessible and fair.
Since taking office in 2018, Assessor Kaegi has brought fairness, ethics, and transparency to the Assessor’s Office with a vision focused on operational changes and technological upgrades. These awards and achievements are a testament to the office's commitment to streamlining processes for property owners and making it easier to access our services. Please read the award details below.
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National Association of Counties (NACo)
New Affordable Housing Program Provides Property Tax Relief
The new Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program incentivizes the rehabilitation and new construction of multi-family residential properties to create, maintain, and preserve affordable housing in Cook County. This program establishes assessment reductions for affordable multifamily rental properties subject to rent, tenant income, and other related restrictions. This new program provides improved benefits for affordable housing providers as well as low-income households by providing more expansive property tax benefits, more ways to qualify, and by encouraging the development of affordable housing in low-affordability communities.
National Association of Counties (NACo)
Strategic Engagement to Encourage Employee Retention & Recruitment
Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and returning to a hybrid work environment created challenges related to employee recruitment and retention at the Assessor’s Office. Over the course of the pandemic, approximately 70 full-time employees were hired or promoted. The Human Resource Department had to quickly come up with creative strategies to foster employee engagement, boost morale, and build workplace culture. Led by HR, an Engagement Committee was developed to enable employees to engage and connect with colleagues though strategic activities ranging from learning and development, social activities, and conversations with leadership.
National Association of Counties (NACo)
2023 Achievement Award: Property Tax Simulator - PTAXSIM
This is a software code package implemented in the coding language R and is designed to recalculate changes to Cook County property tax bills. It uses real assessment, exemption, TIF, and levy data to generate historic, line-by-line tax bills for properties in Cook County from tax years 2006 to 2020. Why is this important? Policymakers, researchers, and journalists can now create historical counterfactual scenarios to determine how policy changes could impact the property tax system.
Outstanding Community Partner
Outstanding Community Partner Award from the Community Investment Corporation (CIC) and the Preservation Compact
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and team received the Outstanding Community Partner Award from the Community Investment Corporation (CIC) and the Preservation Compact during their annual Neighborhood Forum event hosted on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. This award is a special acknowledgment to honor the work done by the Cook County Assessor's office and the partners that helped implement the Affordable Housing legislation (HB2621).
International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO)
James A. Howze, CAE, Distinguished Research and Development Award
Bringing Fairness and Transparency in Property Assessments by Building a New Residential Valuation Model
The Data Team created a new in-house residential valuation model using free software and open-source algorithms. The model has helped improve accuracy, equity, and transparency, and reduce the need for appeals for 1.1 million residential properties.
Center for Digital Government
County Project Experience Winner
Bringing Fairness and Transparency in Property Assessments by Building a New Residential Valuation Model
The Data Team created a new in-house residential valuation model using free software and open-source algorithms. The model has helped improve accuracy, equity, and transparency, and reduce the need for appeals for 1.1 million residential properties.
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National Association of Counties (NACo)
2022 Conversations about Racial Equity and Real Estate Initiative
Over the past two years, the Assessor's Office conducted a series of discussions about how race impacts our work as assessors and the ways it has had historic and current impacts on local real estate markets. Through these virtual "Racial Equity and Real Estate" conversations, experts from Princeton University, The University of Chicago, and Duke University joined local community developers, realtors, and artists for a series of rich and unique discussions.
National Association of Counties (NACo)
2022 Senior Citizens Aren't Getting Any Younger
The Assessor’s Office administers property tax exemptions for residential property owners in Cook County. These exemptions provide significant savings to senior homeowners. Prior to Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s administration, seniors were required to apply for the Senior Exemption every year, proving they are still over the age of 65. Assessor Fritz Kaegi championed a bill that amends the Illinois Property Tax Code so that a homeowner who has been granted a Senior Exemption will not need to reapply for the exemption each year.
National Association of Counties (NACo)
2022 Bringing Fairness and Transparency in Property Assessments
To provide the best services to homeowners in Cook County – the largest market-based assessment jurisdiction in the United States – Assessor Fritz Kaegi tasked the Data team with the development of a new valuation model. The goal of this was to improve assessment accuracy, equity, and transparency. Data staff created a new in-house residential valuation model using free software and open-source algorithms that was first introduced in 2019.
International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO)
2021 Public Information Award: Communication During a Global Pandemic
With the Stay at Home Order enacted by the State of Illinois, the CCAO had to close down five offices including the main downtown branch at the start of the assessment season. The CCAO’s Communications Department went into emergency response mode and developed a public information plan to convey information digitally while still considering communities with less access to technological tools.
National Association of Counties (NACo)
2021 Achievement Award: File Smarter, Not Harder: How the Assessor’s Office Went Digital
Up until 2020, the assessment of more than 1.9 million parcels still relied heavily on paper applications and forms. For the first time in the history of the Assessor’s Office, applications for both property tax exemptions and assessment appeals were fully accessible online. Under the leadership of Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, the office made a significant leap forward in the technological modernization of the third-largest assessment jurisdiction in the nation.
STATESCOOP
2020 Local IT Innovation of the Year Award: Implementation of Online Appeals
With SmartFile, property owners can file appeals online with the Assessor's Office through a dynamic, modern platform. Even during stay-at-home restrictions during COVID-19, the public could file an appeal and drastically reduce the need for in-person visits to offices.
2021 IAAO Award Video
Watch this video that highlights the 2021 IAAO Public Information Award winners. These persons and jurisdictions accepted their awards during the 2021 IAAO Annual Conference that took place last summer in Chicago and was co-hosted by the Cook County Assessor's Office.