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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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