Cook County: a per-taxing-district land value tax — classification-preserved (C2-CP)
Each of Cook County's ~900 taxing bodies — school, library, park, municipal, and county
districts — shifts its own levy from total value onto land, within its own boundary and keeping its own
revenue. A parcel's new bill is the sum, across the districts that cover it, of its land value times each
district's land rate.
Because each district funds itself, this isolates the pure land shift. (The single
county-wide rate, C1, instead pools the whole county's tax base together.) Results are grouped by
assessment township just for navigation — the township is not the tax unit.
Two reforms are shown: a 2.5:1 split-rate (land taxed 2.5× buildings, the Illinois
classification cap) and a 100% building abatement (a pure land tax). This variant uses assessed values, so
Cook County's 10%/25% class ratios stay in place — separating the land shift from the
classification-removal effect. Positive means the parcel pays more.
How to read this. A land shift taxes land at a higher rate than buildings, set so total revenue is unchanged. Because the total is unchanged, it's a redistribution: whoever is land-heavy pays more, whoever is building-heavy pays less.
A vacant lot is 100% land → taxed entirely at the high land rate → pays more.
A high-rise condo is ~90% building → most of its value is taxed at the low building rate → pays less.
A typical single-family home (~25% land) → modestly less.