Vacant and minimally-improved lots are assessed far below their neighbors and pay little to sit idle. What if Cook County raised their assessment level from 10% to 25% (the legal maximum)? Vacant lots would pay much more, and the change is revenue-neutral, so every other property pays slightly less. Learn more at StrongTownsChicago.org.
Models raising the assessment level on vacant land (Cook County classes 1-00 and 1-90) from 10% to 25%, computed in PTAXSIM on 2024 assessment and levy data. The model is revenue-neutral per taxing agency: each agency keeps its levy, and its rate falls as the larger vacant base is added, so vacant parcels pay more and every other parcel pays a little less. Bills come from the real 14-digit unit PINs summed to each parcel.
Analysis approach by Stephen Hoskins, Progress and Poverty Institute (see his original interactive map). Tax data derived from PTAXSIM / Cook County Assessor's Office. This is a counterfactual model of 2024 bills, not a forecast. The relief is a countywide average: a parcel's actual change depends on its taxing district and any TIF, and tax-exempt parcels do not change. Per-parcel figures also rest on the assessor's land/building split, the least certain value the assessor produces.
← Back to the value-per-acre map · Code is open source in this GitHub repo.