No one shocked by opening a huge Cook County property tax bill this month wants to be told it could have been worse. But the fact is, it could have been worse. Thanks to a state law championed by county Assessor Jim Houlihan, growth in property assessments has been capped at 7 percent annually, making jumps in tax bills a bit more predictable. That cap will expire next fall unless the Legislature extends it this fall or early next year. The cap certainly isn't perfect, but we think it deserves to survive.  

Part of the problem that the cap seeks to address is the fact that the value of your home is reassessed every three years, instead of annually. With the residential property market going haywire for the last several years, that has resulted in huge increases in the assessed value of homes. The median increase for city residences this year, for instance, was 41 percent. The so-called 7 percent solution limits those increases to 7 percent a year, or 21 percent for three years. That means the value of your home -- the number used to determine your share of the county's tax burden -- will rise at a more reasonable amount each year, and so will your tax bill.

Of course, any program that lowers taxes for some must also raise taxes for others, except in the unlikely event that the area's taxing bodies actually control their spending and demand less in taxes. The "losers" under the cap include homeowners whose property value held constant or shrunk. Under our complex tax system, those owners see a reduction in taxes, but the cap somewhat limits that reduction. And homeowners in slow-growth areas may pay a bit more than they would otherwise pay. But most homeowners see some benefits, getting annual, more predictable and stable assessments as opposed to seeing huge, triennial spikes. 
 
The other losers are commercial properties and apartments, which must make up the tax savings passed on to single-family homes. But according to Houlihan, the growth in residential assessments has far exceeded the growth in commercial assessments in recent years, shifting the burden to residential properties. The cap is slowing that switch. 
 
Public policy always involves making tough choices. The cap does help people in wealthy homes with skyrocketing assessments, although they don't receive the full 7 percent benefit. It also helps people on fixed incomes who are being taxed out of out of longtime homes in gentrifying areas. Some people have to pay more, some pay less. That's always going to be the case when properties are reassessed and our relative share of the tax burden changes. And it's a price we're willing to pay to bring some moderation and predictability to our crazy tax system.