What’s in a Chicago Tax Bill?Navigating City Hall/County Building

Blagica Stefanovski, NBC5 Street Team (Video)

As I mentioned earlier today, I had the proud moment of paying my tax bill. Let’s face it – whether you get married and buy a condo/townhouse with your man or buy a home on your own, you’ll need to know where to go in the city of Chicago and how to get there.

That’s where I come in .

First, check out the following list. I took my tax bill and calculated the percentage of my total that went to various line items. I had a tax bill for my condo unit and another tax bill for my parking spot. That’s right. If you own a parking spot in the wonderful city of Chicago, you pay taxes on it. The percentages below are off by a few points because I didn’t add in my parking spot line items, but you’ll get the point.

What Your Cook County Taxes Go Towards
A Gals’ Guide to Getting How Chicago Works….

51% – Board of Education – to all you that want to go the private school route, look at how much you’ll be paying in taxes…that your kids may never use. Chicago does have some phenom public schools. You just need to research the heck out of them. I’m not even married yet and started a flowchart of school, neighborhoods and curriculum. I’m even going to schedule some elementary tours soon. Call me crazy, but if half of my tax bill goes to school, I’m going to do my darndest to make sure CEO Arne Duncan gives me some options.

5% – Water Reclamation
3% – Parks/Museum Aquarium Bond
7% – Parks
2% – School Finance Authority (um, what do they do exactly?)
4% – Community Colleges
1% – Library Fund
20% – City of Chicago…gotta pay to live here, right. I’d still like to see what this 20% goes towards exactly.
1% – Forest Preserve..
5% – Cook County
2.5% – Cook County Public Safety
2% – Cook County Health

Now, there is a big, massive building that takes up a block. This city hub houses our Mayor, along with City AND County services.Yep, you guessed it, the building is called The City Hall/County Building. You’ll need to know what side of the building you need to be on for various things you will need in Chicago. I’ve had many occasions of walking in and staring at the hallway in a confused sort of way, while city workers look at me and chuckle at me. I thought I’d break down the ins and outs of the building so you don’t have to deal with those awkward moments.

Though, I must say, I absolutely love strolling in that building and feeling the buzz of the city’s inner workings and wondering what Mayor Daley’s staff is cooking up.

118 N. Clark, entrance to the Cook County side(East)
Things you do here:

• Pay your tax bill at the Treasurers Office
• Register to vote
• Get a marriage license
• Make sure your taxes are sent to your address at the Assessors office (the Assessor tells you what you owe in taxes, then the Treasurer’s office collects the checks)
• File business with the city
• Ask President Todd Stroger why he keeps giving friends high profile jobs (I’m on to you, Stroger)

121 N. LaSalle, entrance to City Hall (West)
Things you do here:

• Go to a city council meeting
• Visit the Mayor on the 5th floor (well, you have to get thru security first)
• Try to get a new condo built with approval from the zoning people
• Say hello to all workers that work for the city

Lastly, a little known secret. Did you know that much of the city is connected with a sweet PedWay that goes underneath the City Hall/County building? Yep, when it’s cold outside, you can walk all the way to the condos at Lakeshore East! Check out the Google Chicago Underground Pedway Map here. Happy hunting!