Cook County Commissioner Kisha McCaskill claims tax exemptions on abandoned Dixmoor property

Cook County Commissioner Kisha McCaskill (5th) is claiming tax exemptions at a property she owns in Dixmoor that have dramatically reduced her bills for the property to less than $35 a year. But she doesn’t live there. And the home is inhabitable. 

For four years, McCaskill has claimed a homestead and senior exemption on a single-family home located at 30 W. 142nd St., county records show. Both exemptions require that you own the property and it be your primary residence. 

McCaskill is seeking re-election to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. According to her election paperwork, she claims residence in Harvey’s 6th Ward. Senior exemptions are only available for taxpayers 65 years or older. McCaskill is in her mid-50s.

A limited liability company purchased the home at the county’s annual tax sale in 2018 for $2,475.16, county records show. A two-year redemption period follows to allow the owner to re-claim the property by paying off the tax debt. If they do not, the tax buyer assumes ownership. In May 2020, the LLC and McCaskill petitioned a court to obtain receipt of the deed. McCaskill assumed ownership of the tax deed in August 2021.

In Cook County, homestead and senior exemptions automatically renew. The exemptions were already applied to the property when McCaskill assumed ownership, county records show, but she did not alert the county to cease applying the exemptions. 

After exemptions, McCaskill’s Dixmoor property has seen extremely low tax bills, but she’s still delinquent. Her 2023 tax bill was $14.73 before interest, county records show. Her 2024 tax bill totaled $34.03, interest included. She has not paid either bill. Mailed out in April, the first installment of her 2025 bill is $17.98. 

Commissioner McCaskill did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In a statement, the Cook County Assessor’s Office said the matter has been referred to the erroneous exemption department for investigation. “As part of our investigative process, we give the property owner 30 days to respond to any finding that they may be incorrectly receiving an exemption. Therefore, we have not made a final determination in this case.”

Trimmed hedges, solar panels, and security systems reveal a block where locals invest time and energy maintaining their abodes. There is a block club. McCaskill’s property is distinctive, however, one of only two vacant homes on the block. The home’s prior occupants include relatives of McCaskill’s cousin, former Harvey mayor Eric J. Kellogg.

There is considerable storm damage. An open roof frame exposes the home’s interior to the elements, as do cracked and open windows. Torrential winds blow the side door ajar. Inside, the floor is covered with debris and condiment bottles in what appears to be a kitchen. Modelo beer cans are scattered in the front yard. A blue cooler filled to the brim with stormwater sits next to the home. A water bottle filled with a yellow liquid — presumably urine — lies in the front yard.

McCaskill’s campaign signs are on and around the block.

Shifting the burden

Appeals contest the market value, or what a property is sold for. Exemptions help reduce a property’s equalized assessed value, or the taxable value of a property.

“Functionally, these act similarly to each other in the tax extension process because, if appeals reduce market value (and assessed value), there’s less taxable value left,” said Christopher Goodman, Associate Professor of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University.

In Cook County, residential properties are assessed at 10 percent of market rate. Generally speaking, but not always, the higher the assessed value, the higher the tax bill. “Because of the tax extension process, exemptions decrease the total taxable value available to satisfy the levy. More exemptions [lead to] higher rates on the remaining property,” Goodman said.

McCaskill’s Dixmoor property was reassessed in 2023 and has a market value of $60,000 and assessed value of $6,000, according to county records. Prior to the county’s 2023 triennial assessment, the home’s market value was $37,520 with an assessed value of $3,752.

The county assessor’s erroneous exemption division processed more than 1,400 cases between December 2024 and November 2025. The department collected $6.7 million in revenue. Of that, $4.4 million is slated to be returned to taxing districts across Cook County.

Dixmoor connections

The McCaskill family is largely associated with its leadership of the Harvey park and library districts. But the family has deep ties to Dixmoor.

Matriarch Kisha McCaskill’s campaign headquarters is located at a strip mall on 145th St. and Western Ave. Patriarch Anthony McCaskill serves as the village’s treasurer. Son Aaron Q. McCaskill works at Dixmoor Police Department as a full-time officer, state records show. In November 2021, he was hired as a part-time officer and separated in February 2022. In April 2025, the department hired him full-time. 

The Dixmoor property is so beyond repair that village attorneys from Vasselli Law filed a motion against McCaskill in January 2024 to demolish her Dixmoor property, court records show. It eventually withdrew the suit. In April 2025, founding partner James Vasselli donated $2,500 to McCaskill’s county re-election bid, state campaign finance records show. She and content creators have filmed quirky videos inside Village Hall with trustees.

The McCaskill couple have appeared on camera with President Fitzgerald Roberts and trustee Teatroy Webster to offer support after local water main breaks. Anthony and Kisha are co-founders of the South Suburban Region Black Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The two opened an entrepreneurial training academy on 142nd St. and Wood St. — a mere three blocks west of Kisha’s derelict property. Construction was completed in 2025.

Challengers react

McCaskill plans to “support proposals to balance the tax system” and “close loopholes,” according to her campaign website. She also plans to “reimagine vacant lots and dilapidated spaces” and pursue regional partnerships that help “directly address infrastructure.”

The exemptions and condition of McCaskill’s Dixmoor property prompted immediate backlash from 5th district challengers.

“That’s just atrocious. There’s been a lot of things going on with the McCaskills that’s raised a lot of eyebrows,” said Republican candidate Richard Nolan in response to the HWH’s findings. “There’s a lot of things that don’t pass the smell test” with the McCaskills, he said. Nolan previously served as Riverdale trustee and as vice president of the village’s General George S. Patton School District 133. “We have to make the voters a top priority.”

Nolan noted McCaskill has spent the bulk of her time co-sponsoring other commissioner’s legislation instead of introducing her own since she was appointed in January 2025. “She has not brought any kind of program that she’s gonna lay out to the residents in the 5th district,” Nolan said.

In a statement, Dolton trustee and Democratic challenger Kiana Belcher called the information “deeply concerning.”

“When elected officials are connected to situations involving property tax exemptions, residency questions, or oversight failures, it erodes public confidence, whether the error was intentional or administrative,” Belcher said. “The people of this district work hard to pay their taxes, and expect their leaders to be held to the same if not higher standard.” Belcher called for policy change so that “no one regardless of position benefits from errors that everyday residents would be held accountable for.”