In Cook County, the County Treasurer oversees the second-largest property tax collection and distribution system in the United States. Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas is responsible for:
- Printing and mailing bills based on the data provided by other county and state agencies on assessments, exemptions and tax rates
- Collection of $11 billion each year in taxes from the owners of more than 1.7 million parcels of property
- Distribution of the tax funds to approximately 2,200 local government agencies that have the jurisdiction to collect taxes. The agencies include school districts, villages, cities, townships, park, and forest preserve systems, libraries, public health and safety agencies, election authorities, economic development agencies and bonds to pay for public-works projects
Treasurer Pappas also must maintain an investment policy and strategy to address:
- Conformance with federal and state laws and local ordinances
- Safety of principal to avoid any risk of loss of public funds
- Diversity of type, maturity, and institution to help manage the risk and principal
- Liquidity of funds to provide sufficient funds to meet obligations as they become due
- Returns on investments or yields that provide performance measures with return on investments to be secondary to the role of protecting the safety and liquidity features of the policy
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