When your property tax bill arrives in your mailbox soon, chances are you’ll be squinting to figure out the difference between your property value, your assessed property value and your equalized assessed property value. After about four months of poking around the Cook County property tax system, one thing is clear here at Patch: It’s confusing, complex, and unwieldy, so much so that there’s not one particular kink in the system that we can point our fingers at to say, “aha, here’s the problem!” And it’s not just us. Ask elected officials, the county assessor’s spokesperson, the assessor’s …

Basic Concepts: Property Tax: The amount of money you pay to own property in a civil society in one lump sum. It is based on local tax rates for your local taxing organizations (i.e. schools, municipalities, libraries) and your property’s value. Sales Tax: A cost added to each retail purchase. It is based on tax rates for your local taxing organizations and the dollar value of the item purchased. Total Tax Burden: This is the amount of money that your local taxing bodies levy to fund their services. Most of the money goes to public schools. Local Taxing Bodies: Organizations built to serve …