On a recent drive (eastbound, for the record), I gripped the wheel tightly upon observing a car turn into a westbound lane seemingly oblivious to the approaching driver who would’ve struck the lead car straight in the rear but for quick reactions and functioning brakes.

Everyone was fine, crisis averted, but those near misses remind us of the importance of vigilance as well as outright luck that keeps most of us arriving safely at our destinations. Life can change – or end – in an instant.

On the other end of the spectrum, and generally not with mortality at stake, is sensing a brewing disaster not from a great distance but an extended period of time, such that the involved parties could have leveraged multiple off-ramps, but instead plodded forward toward an apparently inevitable quagmire.

Exhibit A is an outright refusal to deal with implications of a U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down three years ago: A May 2023 unanimous ruling in Tyler v. Hennepin County, a Fifth Amendment case stemming from Minnesota that functionally held a government can’t foreclose on and sell a property without compensating the original owner for their equity.

In October 2024, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis rejected efforts to dismiss a complaint from people in eight counties who alleged the application of Illinois Tax Code rules stripped them of equity in properties they lost through county tax sales.

In December 2025, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly said Cook County violated the Fifth and Eighth amendments (taking without just compensation and excessive fines, respectively), and earlier this month he ruled the county is on the hook for millions of dollars to thousands of former homeowners.

“The evidence shows the county was deliberately indifferent to the obvious risk of constitutional violations when it failed to act to address property owners’ loss of equity when a tax deed was issued,” he wrote.

There are famously 50 states in the Union, and 49 others are compliant with Tyler. Why Illinois continues to struggle boggles and frustrates, but surprise is completely off the table. County officials have clearly signaled a desire to ride this road into a worst-case outcome, and lawmakers haven’t been much more useful despite all indications the financial hens will soon be roosting.

“The evidence at trial showed that an average of 220 homeowners out of the 1 million homes in Cook County, whose owners pay property taxes – 2/100 of 1% – lose their home due to the tax sale process each year,” Kennelly wrote. “Using the estimated average compensation of $70,000, the county would be required to pay approximately $15.4 million each year.”

That won’t break Cook County, but it’d be meaningful money to affected parties.

It’s time to pay. Finally.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.