Wednesday, Sept. 25

 

CILAs should pay real estate taxes, council says

[SEPT. 25, 2002]  Although they have agreed, reluctantly, to accept group homes for the developmentally disabled in residential areas, Lincoln City Council members don’t believe these homes should be exempt from paying real estate taxes.

At Tuesday’s workshop meeting, City Attorney Bill Bates said a request for a tax exemption has been filed by the CILA that recently opened at 322 Sherman St. This Community Integrated Living Arrangement is built and operated by Community Services Foundation and Charleston Transitional Facility, both not-for-profit corporations run by the Alan G. Ryle Companies.

Bates said that because the property is owned by one tax-exempt corporation and operated by another they may believe they are entitled to a tax exemption. He added, however, that the material he received showed that only a few of the Alan G. Ryle Company’s group homes have been granted tax exemptions.

Alderman Joe Stone said he believed these organizations should pay real estate taxes, and Alderman Bill Melton agreed, saying they are in fact profit-making organizations.

City Clerk Juanita Josserand said she was concerned because "a lot of CILAs are being built, and a lot of property could be taken off the tax rolls."

 

After some discussion, the council authorized Bates to file a protest with the Logan County Board of Review that will state the city’s objections to the tax exemption.

Last week the council bowed to the inevitable and passed an ordinance allowing construction of CILAs in residential areas zoned R-1. The city tried to fight the zoning change, but after refusing to issue a building permit for an R-1 lot in Stonebridge subdivision, the Alan G. Ryle Companies filed a suit in federal court charging the city with violating federal fair housing laws. The lawsuit will be dropped now that the city has changed its ordinance.

Angie Bruns, a deputy assessor in the office of the Logan County supervisor of assessments, told the Lincoln Daily News that Community Services Foundation has filed for exemptions for three CILAs they are operating in Lincoln: the 322 Sherman St. home, another at 1100 N. Sherman and a third on Karen Court.

 

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She said that most of the CILAs in the city do pay real estate taxes, although she knows of one exception, the facility at 2324 N. Kickapoo St. She also said Community Services Foundation has sent documents to the assessor’s office showing that five homes they operate in Coles County have been granted a 100 percent tax exemption for 2001.

"Not all not-for-profit organizations are exempt from taxes, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue," Bruns said. "It is everybody’s right to file for an exemption, but not everybody will get it."

She said the requests are filed in the assessor’s office, then turned over to the three-man Logan County Board of Review. The review board makes its recommendation, then turns the documents over to the Illinois Department of Revenue, which will make the final decision. That may take three to four months.

The next meeting of the review board is Oct. 7.

In other business, the council heard a proposal to hire Industrial Appraisal Company to make an on-site inspection and appraisal of all the city’s fixed assets and their depreciation schedule.

According to Josserand, a new law mandates the appraisal update for auditing purposes. Cost for the appraisal would be $7,730. For an additional $1,495, the city can get software that will make it easier and more efficient to update the city’s inventory. The software can be upgraded for $250 a year, she said.

In case of fire or other loss, the appraisal company, which the city already employs, will send an inventory of any city building and its contents for insurance purposes, she said. The proposal was put on the agenda for the next meeting on Oct. 7.

[Joan Crabb]

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