Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court
Recent News About Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court
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State OK to deny church-affiliated daycare center property tax exemption because too 'businesslike'
A state appeals court in Springfield has said the state of Illinois was correct to deny a property tax exemption to a church for a day care center owned, staffed and operated by the church and its member, finding the day care center was more "businesslike than religious" in nature. -
IL Supreme Court gives hospitals win over property tax exemptions, but still not declared 'constitutional'
Hospital operators in Illinois have won a battle in the fight over a state law blocking local governments from making them pay property taxes, as the Illinois Supreme Court determined an appellate court had erred on procedural grounds in using the case to strike down the state law as unconstitutional. However, the high court did not go so far as to declare the 2012 law to be constitutional, setting the stage for more legal tussles to come on the question. -
Appeals court refuses to lift stay on labor board's impasse finding; strike spectre still looms
In the latest move in the ongoing battle between Illinois state union workers and Gov. Bruce Rauner, a state appeals court has refused the governor’s request to lift a court-ordered stay on the Illinois Labor Relations Board’s finding that the state and its largest union are at an impasse, a move that will impact the ability of Rauner to impose contract terms and of the union to strike. -
Appeals court: Cities can cut vacation time buybacks, other programs, to end pension spiking
A state appeals court in Springfield has affirmed cities and other local governments have the right to modify workers’ employment and compensation agreements to prevent “pension spiking” without running afoul of the state constitution’s public worker pension protections. -
IL Supreme Court mulls legality of hospital property tax exemptions; could await better test case
The Illinois Supreme Court could soon decide whether hospitals in Illinois should be allowed to avoid paying property taxes, or whether a state law used to grant them tax exemptions should be declared unconstitutional. Or the court could simply sidestep the matter for now, and instead await the arrival of a different case better suited for addressing the sticky legal questions. -
IL appeals panel breaks with colleagues, says hospital tax exemptions constitutional
Even as they noted their decision conflicts with the findings of their colleagues in Springfield, a panel of state appeals court justices in Chicago has ruled the Illinois law exempting nonprofit hospitals from property taxes is, indeed, constitutional. -
IL taxpayers can sue to block business tax credit program costing the state too much: Panel
An Illinois appeals panel in Springfield, in overturning a lower court decision, has ruled taxpayers have the right to try to block a state commerce agency from administering a business development tax credit program the group of taxpayers has argued is actually an alleged illegal state tax improperly eating up public funds. -
IL Supreme Court to tackle hospital property taxes, rights of protesters in Grant Park
The Illinois Supreme Court will weigh in on the question of whether Illinois law can constitutionally exempt hospitals from paying property taxes, and whether the city of Chicago can use curfew laws to keep protesters out of Grant Park over night. -
Class action: IL hospitals should repay taxpayers for years of unconstitutional tax exemptions
In the wake of an Illinois appellate court decision striking down as unconstitutional the state law allowing Illinois’ nonprofit hospitals to avoid property taxes, a Chicago real estate investment group has filed a class action lawsuit against all every hospital in Illinois, alleging property owners in Cook County and elsewhere have been forced to pay higher real estate taxes than they otherwise should have to make up for what the plaintiffs allege the hospitals should have been paying. -
Appeals panel: Judge wrong to nix firing of state worker who got Link cards for friends, family, used it herself
A state appellate panel in Springfield has reinstated the termination of a state worker who had been fired for allegedly authorizing state aid for friends and relatives, and using those benefits to pay for purchases for herself. A Sangamon County judge had ordered her punishment reduced. -
Illinois law granting hospitals tax exemption struck down by appellate court as unconstitutional
A state appellate panel has struck down an Illinois law providing tax exemptions to hospitals, saying lawmakers erred under the state constitution in believing hospitals should be able to avoid paying property taxes because they may provide enough benefits to their communities to offset the millions of dollars in tax revenue lost to cities, counties, school districts and other local property tax-collecting entities.