Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said today her office already has sent $466 million to local taxing agencies across Cook County from current collections, the earliest known distribution of tax revenues during a collection period by the Treasurer's Office.

"The sooner we process and send revenues to local governments and school, police, fire and library districts, the better we serve them and taxpayers," Pappas said.

Pappas made the announcement as her office was collecting, during October, the second installment of property taxes for tax year 2001. By the due date of November 1, her office will have collected $4 billion for the second installment, all of which will be distributed to local taxing agencies in Cook County. Some $4 billion from the first installment was distributed earlier this year.

Second-installment collections began coming in to the Treasurer's Office October 1. By October 10, $279 million had been balanced and reconciled, then sent to local taxing agencies in two distributions, $113 million on October 15 and $166 million on October 18. On Tuesday (October 22), another $187 million was distributed.

In the past, distribution of revenues usually did not begin until seven days before the due date of a collection period. The latest distribution began more than two weeks earlier than usual, the earliest known start of distributions on record during a collection period, Pappas said.

"This gets financial resources to local governments and other taxing agencies weeks earlier than in the past, and eases their financial pressure," Pappas said.

The Cook County Treasurer's Office collects $8 billion in property taxes on 1.7 million parcels of property yearly in two installments, then distributes the revenue to 1,600 municipalities and other taxing agencies in Cook County.