Some communities saw their bills rise 75% or more.

The median property tax bill for Chicago homeowners rose by a record last year, and some parts of the city saw much steeper increases than others.

The citywide median rise was 16.7%, according to a report from the Cook County Treasurer’s office on bills for tax year 2024.

Many poor communities in Chicago saw the largest increases. In 15 areas on the South and West sides, property taxes shot up 30% because of rising home values. In West Garfield Park, North Lawndale, Englewood, West Pullman and West Englewood, property tax bills rose 75% or more.

Chicago homeowners have suffered in recent years. While property taxes did increase in some Cook County suburbs in 2024, city homeowners felt the bulk of the pain. That’s because assessed values on downtown commercial buildings fell 7.2%, reducing taxes on those properties.

Lower commercial assessments don’t reduce what the city expects to collect in property taxes — it just means homeowners pay a larger share.

Other reasons for Chicago homeowners’ high bills this year included a 6.3% increase in the levy, or what taxing bodies request. That rise was driven by a larger request from Chicago Public Schools and a higher amount earmarked for Tax Increment Financing districts. TIF districts collected 10.4% more year over year in 2024, totaling over $1.3 billion.

For 2024 the total Cook County levy was $19.2 billion, up about 4.8% from the previous year. The Chicago-area inflation rate was closer to 3.5%.

Cook County property taxes have outpaced inflation for a long time. Since 1995, they’ve gone up 181%, from $6.8 billion in 1995 to $19.2 billion in 2024, according to the county treasurer. Adjusted for inflation, that’s a 48% increase. If property taxes had risen on pace with inflation, the 2024 levy would have been $13 billion rather than $19.2 billion.

This rising burden can’t continue. Since 2019, more than 1,000 Cook County homeowners — including 125 senior citizens — have lost their homes and all their equity over a property tax debt smaller than the price of a 10-year-old Chevy Impala.

The U.S. Supreme Court has found the practice of taking more than the tax owed to be unconstitutional, but the Illinois General Assembly has yet to change the law to stop it. Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas delayed the property tax lien sale scheduled for last August, but it’s now set for March.

Of the Illinois residents who moved out in 2024, 95% went to lower-tax states. Lawmakers must reduce the property tax burden. They should cap how long TIFs can last and limit how many times they can be extended. Returning that money to general use would bring much-needed transparency and real property tax relief for Illinois residents.

Also, legislators are allowed to work as property tax appeal lawyers, enabling them to profit from ever-growing tax hikes. Imprisoned former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan did that, as did former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke. This practice should not be prohibited.

The best way to reduce the property tax burden is to reform its largest driver: public-sector pensions. In Chicago, 80% of property taxes go toward its growing pension debt. Rather than seeking to control spending, Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed a “pension sweetener” for Chicago police and firefighters that will increase liabilities by $11.1 billion.

Reforming the state constitution would allow for moderate pension changes, increasing the fiscal health of those systems and reducing the property tax burden on Chicago homeowners.

Until changes are made, Cook County homeowners will continue to see their property tax bills climb.

It was a particularly heinous crime. Four workers at a cemetery near Chicago dug up more than 100 bodies and dumped the remains elsewhere in the grounds, in order to resell the burial plots for profit.

Now, nearly two decades after the scandal broke at Burr Oak cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, scientists have released details of how a tiny clump of moss became crucial forensic evidence that helped convict the grave robbers.

Dr Matt von Konrat, head of botanical collections at the Field Museum in Chicago, was drawn into the case in 2009 when he received a phone call from the FBI. “They asked if I knew about moss and brought the evidence to the museum,” he said.

An investigation by local police had found human remains buried under inches of earth at the cemetery, a site of enormous historical importance. Several prominent African Americans are buried at the cemetery, including Emmett Till, whose murder in 1955 became a catalyst for the civil rights movement, and the blues singer Dinah Washington.

Alongside the re-buried remains, forensic specialists spotted various plants, including a piece of moss about the size of a fingertip. Hoping that it would help them crack the case, the FBI asked von Konrat to work out where the moss came from and how long it had been there.

After examining the moss under a microscope and comparing it with dried specimens in the museum’s collection, the scientists identified it as common pocket moss, or Fissidens taxifolius. A survey at the cemetery found that the species did not grow where the corpses were discovered, but was abundant in a lightly shaded area beneath some trees where police suspected the bodies had been dug up. The moss had evidently been moved with the bodies.

But when was the crime committed? The answer lay in a quirk of moss biology. “This is the cool thing about moss,” von Konrat said. “When we’re dead, we’re dead, but with mosses, it’s bizarre. Even when we might think they’re dead, they can still have an active metabolism.” The metabolism drops slowly over time as cells gradually die off.

One way to measure moss metabolism is to bathe it in light and see how much is absorbed by the chlorophyll used to make food through photosynthesis, and how much light is re-emitted. The scientists ran tests on the moss found with the bodies, on a fresh clump from the cemetery, and other specimens from the museum’s collection.

“We concluded that the moss had been buried for less than 12 months and that was important because the accused’s whole line of defence was that the crime took place before their employment. They were arguing that it happened years and years earlier,” said von Konrat. Details are published in Forensic Sciences Research.

Doug Seccombe, a former FBI agent who worked on the case and a co-author of the study, said the plant material from the cemetery was “key” to securing the convictions when the case went to trial.

Von Konrat, who is a fan of the BBC forensic science drama Silent Witness, never expected to be working on a criminal case, but now wants to highlight how important mosses might be for forensic investigations. “I had no idea we’d be using our science, our collections, in this manner,” he said. “It underscores how important natural history collections are. We never know how we might apply them in the future.”

A popular indoor go karting and gaming company is opening up its first Illinois location in a Chicago suburb this week.

Andretti Indoor Karting & Games announced it will open its doors on a brand new Schaumburg location at 4 p.m. on March 10, with a grand opening event slated for March 14.

The facility will feature numerous attractions, including “high-speed electric Superkarts on a multi-level track” and an arcade with professional racing simulators and two-story laser tag arena, in a 98,000-square-foot facility. There’s also bowling, a movie theater and more, the company said.

The Schaumburg location, at 1441 Thoreau Dr., will mark Andretti’s 13th facility in the U.S.

“We’re thrilled to open our thirteenth location in the thriving village of Schaumburg,” said Eddie Hamman, managing member. “Andretti is the perfect addition to all the amazing experiences across Chicagoland, and we look forward to meeting the communities that make this market a top destination.”

The company said it plans to host a “sneak preview” event beginning at 11 a.m. on March 10, where several guests will “be treated to free racing, attractions, and arcade play with food and beverage options available for purchase.” The Andretti family will also be on-hand for autograph sessions that afternoon.

A limited number of spots will be made available to RSVP to the preview.

Then on March 14, the first 100 guests to visit the facility to be given one hour of free arcade play and entered to win a raffle for a free birthday party. Ten guests could also win free arcade play for a year.