This week, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law that will save time and money for seniors who own their own homes in Cook County.
According to a story in the Chicago Sun-Times, Cook County homeowners who are age 65 or older can apply for the Senior Citizens Homestead Exemption without having to reapply every year for the next four years. The law applies to this year’s tax filings and is scheduled to expire in 2024 unless an extension is passed by the Illinois General Assembly.
Last August, Pritzker signed a similar bill into law but it wasn’t scheduled to go into effect until next year. This week’s signing moved the effective date of the law to this year, according to the Sun-Times. In other Illinois counties, senior homeowners do not need to reapply every year for the homestead exemption to get the tax break.