Pappas Says No Apology Owed to Boykin Over Vulgar Texts Calling Him a Turn Coat

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas says she owes no apology to former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, even after he released text messages in which she called him a turn coat, a piece of s***, and an a**hole, and told him maybe it's how you were raised, boy. Pappas has instead accused Boykin of publicizing what she considered a private exchange, calling his response grandstanding meant to grab headlines during a heated political moment.

The dispute burst into public view when Boykin, who represented Cook County's 1st District from 2014 to 2018 before losing the seat in the 2018 Democratic primary to now-Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, filed a complaint against Pappas with the Cook County Inspector General. According to CBS Chicago, Boykin demanded an apology and requested a formal investigation into Pappas, calling the texts vulgar, condescending and racist. He has said Pappas's use of the word boy evokes the way white people have historically talked down to Black men, and he pointed to the fact that his mother, Burnette Boykin, was a single parent who raised him in Englewood before her death in August 2023, as a reason the insult cut especially deep, according to CBS News.

Pappas has pushed back hard on the racism claim. Speaking about the exchange, she said, “I'm the least person to be attacked as somebody racist,” and dismissed the whole affair as two people having a spat. She noted that she and Boykin were previously good friends, that she had endorsed his bid to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Danny Davis in Illinois's 7th Congressional District earlier in 2026, and that she even did commercials for his campaign. Boykin ultimately lost that Democratic primary to Illinois state Rep. La Shawn Ford.

A Pattern of Combative Communications

This is not the first time Pappas's office has faced allegations of aggressive, profanity-laced exchanges with people she has clashed with professionally. In February 2026, Tyler Technologies CEO H. Lynn Moore Jr. submitted a nine-page letter to Cook County officials alleging that Pappas repeatedly subjected company executives to bullying, threats, and obscenity-filled tirades during disputes over delays in overhauling the county's property tax software, as reported by The Real Deal. Pappas had publicly blamed Tyler Technologies for the technological glitches that delayed billions of dollars in property tax distributions to local taxing bodies.

Those software delays have generated far more than a feud with a vendor. The Illinois Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit against Pappas in July, alleging her office failed to properly disburse roughly $400 million in collected property tax funds to public school districts across the county, according to WTTW. The Chicago Teachers Union joined the Illinois Federation of Teachers in demanding that Pappas's office send out the delayed bills and provide compensation for school districts hurt by the holdup, as the delayed revenue forced districts to rely on lines of credit to keep operating. Pappas has said she believes the lawsuit will be thrown out of court, and that people seeking headlines are using her as a punching bag.

Billing Backlog Has Rippled Across County Government

The property tax turmoil predates this summer's lawsuit. Cook County established a $300 million zero-interest bridge loan program to help school districts and municipalities cover cash shortfalls caused by the delayed billing cycles, a measure Hoodline detailed in its report on Cook County's shifted tax deadline. Under Illinois Senate Bill 642, passed during the legislature's fall veto session, delinquent first-installment property taxes for tax year 2025 now accrue interest at 0.75% per month starting after April 1, 2026, down from the historic 1.5% monthly rate, giving property owners some relief from penalties tied to the software backlog.

Cook County's tax collection system faced separate legal trouble in December 2025, when U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly ruled in Kidd v. Pappas that the county's tax-sale procedures violated the Fifth and Eighth Amendments, a decision that forced state lawmakers to repeatedly postpone the annual tax auction, as Hoodline previously reported in its coverage of the ruling. Pappas's office has also faced scrutiny over her personal finances tied to Tyler Technologies; in March 2024, her office disclosed she had quietly sold a small personal stock holding in the company, which representatives said had been acquired by a former broker without her direct knowledge and was dumped as soon as she found out.

Bills Going Out as Political Stakes Rise

Cook County plans to issue the second installment of 2025 property tax bills as the office's analysis shows local governments countywide sought $743.8 million in new taxes, with homeowners paying 80% of the value of the county's tax increase. Pappas, who has served as Cook County Treasurer since 1998 overseeing more than $13 billion in annual property tax revenue distributed to over 1,500 local taxing districts, also hosts a 30-minute radio show called Black Houses Matter on WVON.

The public feud lands as Pappas is weighing a run for Chicago mayor in 2027, a race that already includes other prominent names circling the field. Boykin's criticism was not limited to the text messages: his news release also took aim at candidates running for mayor while continuing to hold their current elected offices, and he had separately sent out a release earlier in August for mayoral candidate Willie Wilson. Whether the Inspector General will act on Boykin's complaint remains an open question, but the clash has added a personal edge to a mayoral contest already shaping up as one of the most closely watched in years.