CHICAGO (WLS) — The ABC7 I-Team is delving into the significant delays in distributing Cook County property tax refunds to taxpayers.
County officials have attributed the holdup to a computer system upgrade managed by a private firm. Although the technical issues have been resolved for issuing tax bills, the refund process remains stalled.
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch
Nearly a year has passed, and thousands of property owners, from Lyons Township in the south suburbs to South Barrington in the north, are still awaiting nearly $200 million in refunds.
Among those affected is Sherry Schnell, who is owed $10,000 due to an error in calculating her property’s square footage.
“It’s hard to believe it’s taking this long,” Schnell expressed. “I wonder if I will ever see that money.”
In another case, Jim Duhr from unincorporated Elgin has been waiting for $17,000 due to repeated errors in the classification of his vacant land.
“I feel like I am living in the movie ‘Groundhog Day.’ Nothing is getting fixed,” Duhr said.
Cook County property tax refund delays are plaguing 83,000 property owners who have been waiting on $186 million since May 2025. That averages to $2,250 owed to each taxpayer.
“If I was in charge, I think I would just fire everybody and start over,” Duhr said.
In all the cases the I-Team has investigated, the Cook County Assessor’s Office made assessment mistakes, and certificates of error were issued, but many were waiting on the final process of certification. The assessor’s office also blamed the long process of red tape between their office and others like the Cook County Treasurer’s Office and the Board of Review.
Now, the wait is continuing due to a computer software upgrade delay by Tyler Technologies, the private company hired by the county. The computer issues also delayed the distribution of tax property tax bills.
“If you don’t send the money, they’re going to be right after you,” Schnell said.
The Cook County Board has paid Tyler more than $30 million for its “property tax system contract” since it started more than 10 years ago. That doesn’t include millions more the county has paid to Tyler for other contracts and costs.
Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office said, “The President’s Office has been holding Tyler, the Treasurer’s Office and the other property tax offices accountable for their work… and all other outstanding fixes.” Treasurer Maria Pappas says her office is doing all it can.
“I’m trying to get this money out to people,” Pappas said.
Tyler Technologies says this implementation required a generational technology update and it spent what it calls “countless hours” restoring missing data from county agencies, like the treasurer’s office and waiting for the county agencies to address “data anomalies.” The company added, “Our work depends upon cooperation and collaboration from agency stakeholders. The inability to process most converted refunds is due to the County not initially providing this data to Tyler.”
But Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas is blaming Tyler Technologies.
“I am like a man killing snakes without a stick. And this company is incompetent when it comes to being able to deliver,” Pappas said. “Because they haven’t sent sufficient resources here to code to get the problems fixed.”
Tyler Technologies says it has been working around the clock for months at no additional cost. Tyler added, “We continue to work diligently with the Treasurer’s office to enable them to distribute refunds, which are being processed… We are committed to updating the system upon receiving the corrected source data from the County.”
In February, the company claimed their team has faced bullying and threats from Pappas.
When ABC7 Consumer Investigator Jason Knowles told Pappas, “Tyler Technologies says they don’t want to talk to you anymore,” she responded, “Well, you know what? They don’t want to talk to anybody who tells them the truth.”
There were also more than 2,000 government municipalities waiting on $8 billion in funding, but Pappas says her office was able to get much of that money distributed.
“What we did was, I worked with Chase, I went around Tyler, I worked with Chase. They came up with the program so I could get $4 billion out right away,” Pappas said.
After our involvement, Duhr got his $17,000 in checks, and Pappas says the rest should come soon.
When asked if “maybe people will be seeing their money in a week or so,” Pappas said, “I think so. I think so.”
The treasurer’s office added that it has given the computer company what it needs to get the job done.
You may be wondering about what happens to all the refunds sitting in the bank. The money does gain interest, but the treasurer says the county does not keep the interest. It is sent back to the taxpayer with the refund.
Copyright © 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.
