BOMA/Chicago supports Patrick Hynes for Cook County Assessor.
Pat Hynes prioritizes stability, fairness, and predictability in the property tax system. He will ensure new construction and improvements are accurately assessed to prevent unfair shifts and support continued investment.
Hynes plans to create a Department of Economic Development to deliver reliable, forward-looking assessments that help owners finance projects and attract investment.
Hynes also intends to work with the Board of Review to ensure consistent, market-based valuations. His leadership will create a fairer, more predictable system that supports investment, job growth, and long-term economic stability.
Vote in the March 17 Primary Election
Chicago Voters
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Why Does the Assessor’s Office Matter?
Property taxes fund local governments, and each owner pays a share based on the value of their property. The Cook County Assessor sets those values, making the office central to how every home, business, and building is taxed.
Because our local governments rely heavily on property taxes, the system affects everyone. Homeowners already struggle with rising bills, but the burden is even greater for commercial properties. Chicago now has the highest commercial property taxes in the country, hitting offices, industrial, retail, restaurants, and hotels.
By design, commercial buildings in Cook County pay far more than residential ones, even when they’re worth the same. This helps keep homeowners’ bills lower. That structure can work, but only when assessments are accurate and predictable. When they aren’t, investment dries up. Developers can’t finance projects, owners can’t improve buildings, and businesses hesitate to expand. That means fewer construction jobs, fewer building jobs, and declining commercial values. As the commercial base shrinks, homeowners and renters face higher taxes because the system loses the subsidy commercial properties normally provide.
Accurate, consistent assessments – and properly capturing new construction – are essential to a fair system and a growing economy. Without growth, everyone’s property taxes will continue to rise.
Comparing the Candidates
Fritz Kaegi
Current Cook County Assessor
Elected in 2018 on a reform platform, Fritz Kaegi pledged to modernize the Assessor’s Office and improve fairness in the property tax system. His tenure, however, has been marked by incompetence, instability, and operational failure, creating chaos for property owners. Assessor Kaegi has:
- Mismanaged property tax exemptions and shifted more than $250 million in taxes from the rightful payers onto everyone else.
- Failed to capture new construction value, resulting in over $444 million in lost taxable value that everyone else had to pay.
- Caused tax bills to be late in both 2022 and 2025 due to continually poor IT management, causing local schools and governments to borrow tens of millions of dollars to make payroll (which taxpayers had to pay for).
- Caused wild assessment volatility, attacking commercial properties during a downturn, hurting their ability to recruit investment, and shifting extra tax burden onto residential properties.
- Repeatedly tried to weaken taxpayers’ protections and the ability to appeal his authority.
At a time when Chicago’s commercial real estate market faces significant challenges, consistent and market-aligned assessments are critical to restoring confidence and encouraging investment.
Patrick Hynes
Lyons Township Assessor
Patrick Hynes is running to restore stability and confidence in the system. Hynes brings technical expertise and administrative experience to the role. His vision prioritizes fairness, sound management, and economic growth – benefiting property owners, businesses, and communities across the County. He is:
- Experienced: With more than 30 years of experience in Cook County’s property tax system, including service inside the Assessor’s Office
- Recognized for Excellence: In 2025, Hynes received the Outstanding Achievement in Property Assessment Award from the Illinois Property Assessment Institute.
- Tackling a Broken System: Hynes knows Cook County taxpayers have endured unpredictable tax hikes and will work to right-set assessments disconnected from real market values.
- Innovative: Hynes knows how to leverage technology to improve valuations and assessments.
- A consensus-builder: Hynes is endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party, the Chicago Federation of Labor, and is supported by the commercial real estate industry—a broad spectrum of residents, workers, and businesses who all agree that Kaegi has not delivered on his promises.
Paid for by BOMA/Chicago. Not authorized by any candidate. No candidate is responsible for this message.