Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said today that Transamerica Real Estate Tax Service has written letters falsely warning many Cook County taxpayers that their real estate tax bills might go unpaid because the Treasurer's Office failed to send the bills to Transamerica.

"False and reprehensible," said Pappas. "We sent property tax bills to these taxpayers because the taxpayers instructed us to do so. We have no obligation to send a bill to Transamerica, which simply wants to avoid paying $5.00 for a copy by frightening the taxpayer into mailing the bill to it. This has needlessly alarmed many of our taxpayers about the biggest possession in their lives, their homes."

Transamerica, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, sent letters to many Cook County taxpayers, saying that it was acting as agent for another mortgage company. The letters asked for the taxpayers to send their tax bills to Transamerica because "unfortunately, the Cook County Tax Collector did not send us your real estate tax bill" and the taxpayer's failure to do so "could result in your taxes not being paid prior to the due date."