EDWARDSVILLE — State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons announced that he has filed a lawsuit to prevent an illegal property tax increase created by the Metro East Sanitary District (MESD). In his complaint, Gibbons states that MESD unlawfully created a “special service area” (SSA) which imposes additional property taxes on families and small businesses within the new taxing district.
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Gibbons said: “Madison County Clerk Debbie Ming-Mendoza brought her concerns to me after speaking with her counterpart in St. Clair County, Tom Holbrook. Debbie was deeply troubled by the exorbitant 66 percent property tax increase, which resulted from MESD and its’ board’s creation of a special service district. She was concerned about the impact of the property tax on families and businesses in the affected areas of Madison and also St. Clair County.”
The lawsuit questions MESD’s legal authority to create this special service district. With this in mind, a lawsuit was filed challenging the creation and validity of the SSA with the intention of preventing this tax increase from being imposed on the affected families and businesses located in Madison County. “By bringing suit at this time, we should be able to keep this property tax increase from making it onto the property tax bills that will be hitting mailboxes very soon,” said State’s Attorney Gibbons.
Gibbons’ lawsuit lays out why the new MESD taxing district is unlawful by showing a lack of legal authority for its creation. According to the MESD Act of 1974 (70 ILCS 2905/1 et seq.)), there is no authority for MESD to create a SSA. Under the Special Service Area ACT (35 ILCS 200/27-5 et seq.), only a County or a Municipality can create a Special Service Area. In the ordinance passed by MESD, it wrongly refers to itself as a “Municipality.” The Illinois Constitution Article 7, Section 1 defines Municipalities s “cities, villages, and incorporated towns.” Furthermore, Gibbons cites the Illinois Municipal Code in his complaint, which confirms the Constitutional definition of Municipality and then goes even further to state that “municipal or municipality does not include a...sanitary district...” (65ILCS5/1-1-2(1)). Based on this information, Gibbons complaint explains that under the Constitution and laws of the State of Illinois, MESD, a sanitary district, lacks the legal authority to have created this
SSA. Gibbons argues that the SSA must be abolished along with the property tax levy they were trying to impose on the thousands of families and small businesses included in the SSA.
A similar lawsuit was filed in St. Clair County on April 24th, and heard by St. Clair County Judge Katz on Tuesday, May 1st. At the hearing, lawyers for MESD struggled to explain how they had the legal authorization to create this new layer of government taxation. Gibbons said, “We were shocked to hear MESD lawyers argue that if they are not allowed to impose this illegal taxing district, they are going to hold thousands of residents hostage by cutting off services the residents have already paid for and continue to be taxed on.”
“This taxing scheme created by MESD is an extraordinary example of the hubris of some government officials who think they are above the law. The Citizens of Madison County hired me to ensure that justice is done and the rights of Citizens are protected, and with this lawsuit I will be doing just that. I will use every authority I have been entrusted with to protect our families and small business owners from this illegal property tax collection scheme,” stated Gibbons.
A review of MESD minutes and other information showed that in the summer and fall of 2017, MESD Executive Director Steve Adler continued to advance an existing proposal for the creation of the SSA and took the steps necessary to make it a reality by bringing it to his board, which approved the final measure on December 6, 2017. A week later, Adler filed property tax levy documents with the County Clerk’s Office.
Although the amount of taxpayer money already spent by MESD to create this illegal SSA remains unknown, documents filed with the County Recorder’s Office indicate MESD spent $39,600 just to put the notice of the new SSA in a newspaper published in Missouri. “Other issues related to this, including expenditures, remain under review,” stated Gibbons.
