Not over yet: County asks court to reconsider hearing Carle tax case

Jana Wiersema, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
·2 min read

May 1—URBANA — Champaign County officials have made another plea to the Illinois Supreme Court to consider a long-running legal dispute between Carle Health and local and state taxing bodies.

"This Court's review is necessary to prevent entities that perform only incidental amounts of charity from shifting their tax obligations onto local residents and businesses; to avoid new court litigation regarding exemption claims that should be resolved administratively in the first instance; and to resolve growing uncertainty in this area of the law," county officials wrote in their motion for reconsideration.

The state high court previously announced in late March that it had denied Champaign County and the Illinois Department of Revenue's appeal of an appellate court decision regarding property-tax exemptions for Carle.

However, court officials said that, in the event of a denial, the party or parties who submitted the appeal can ask the court to reconsider its decision by filing a motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration as well as a motion for reconsideration.

Steven Pflaum, one of Carle's Chicago lawyers, said that the health system has no comment on the county's motions.

The Fourth District Appellate Court previously issued a decision in August to uphold seven years' worth of charitable tax exemptions for Carle and also ruled that Carle was entitled to an exemption for an eighth year.

Prior to that, Champaign County Judge Randy Rosenbaum ruled in 2020 that Carle was entitled to partial exemptions on its four Urbana properties for tax years 2005-11.

Rosenbaum said there was insufficient evidence to determine the amount of the hospital's charitable activities for 2004. The appellate court later reversed his decision for that year while upholding his determination for the others.

The county and state revenue department appealed the case to the Illinois Supreme Court in December.

County officials argued in their latest filing that the court should take up the case to address ways in which sections of the Illinois Constitution and state law were interpreted by both Carle and the Fourth District.

In addition to the case in question, Champaign County is involved in similar litigation brought by OSF HealthCare and another suit from Carle. These cases are being stayed pending the outcome of the matter at hand, county officials wrote.

The county estimates about $19 million is at stake for impacted taxing districts.