Tax News

CCH (cch.taxgroup.com) reports:

Enactment of the Illinois alternative general homestead exemption from property tax did not violate the state constitutional provisions relating to separation of powers, uniformity of taxation, exemptions, equal protection, or due process, according to the state appellate court. Although the challenge was aimed at the exemption as enacted in 2004, the court noted that the exemption subsequently was substantially reenacted. (TAXDAY, 2007/10/15, S.11)
Initially, the court noted that complaining taxpayers' multiple instances of noncompliance with rules of appellate procedure could have made dismissal an appropriate consideration. However, the issues raised were of significant public interest, the incomplete record was sufficient to allow evaluation of the taxpayers' claims, and the manifest efforts of the parties otherwise demonstrated serious thought and treatment. The issues raised were considered on their merits.
The Illinois General Assembly did not violate the state's constitutional separation of powers principle by permitting each county in the state to elect whether to adopt the exemption. The General Assembly's authority to incrementally delegate its own authority in furtherance of its enacted legislation was part and parcel of its ability to pass any law on any given subject. There was no designation of any rule-making authority, i.e., authority to formulate and draft a rule. Rather, the delegation was only a "take it or leave it option" of a fully drafted and fully formulated piece of legislation. The local option gave full reflection of the design and intent of the legislature with regard to the exercise of its constitutional authority to provide homestead exemptions. There was no reason to expect that allowing the local option for the exemption would permit the legislature to make further delegations of an unconstitutional nature. Finally, a county's selection of the alternative general homestead exemption would not impermissibly have extraterritorial effect in the form of resulting different tax rates in other counties.