OSF suing to prevent Champaign County from taking action on property taxes
OSF HealthCare is taking Champaign County Treasurer Laurel Prussing to court over $1.45 million in property-tax bills issued to OSF Heart of Mary Medical Center of Urbana.
With the first installment on 2018 property taxes due Monday, OSF is looking for a judge to intervene fast.
A hearing in which OSF is seeking an emergency temporary restraining order to stop the treasurer from pursuing action on the tax bills is set for 10 a.m. today before Judge Jason Bohm.
On April 5, the Illinois Department of Revenue issued a property-tax exemption certificate finding OSF Heart of Mary properties to be fully or partially exempt, according to the OSF motion filed this week. Despite that finding, OSF HealthCare’s lawyers wrote, the county treasurer billed the hospital $1,459,391 for all the fully and partially exempt hospital properties...
Champaign County challenged the revenue department's approval of the exemptions for Heart of Mary soon after it happened and is awaiting a hearing on its challenge.
That full article here. OSF's hope for a delay was denied. From WCIA earlier today:
OSF HealthCare’s motion for a restraining order to delay property tax payment on its Heart of Mary Medical Center was denied by a judge Thursday morning.
OSF was granted tax exempt status from the Department of Revenue in April but still received a $1.5 million tax bill from the Champaign County Treasurer’s Office earlier this month...
While OSF will have to pay the bill July 1, it can still have its tax exempt status upheld in the case and be refunded. The sides reconvene August 27 to proceed with the lawsuit.
Full blurb here. Some recent background on this and other hospital tax lawsuits here. About a week ago there was a Tom's Mailbag item that also noted some delays in processing County property tax payments as well. The Treasurer explained the hold up:
Champaign County Treasurer Laurel Prussing explained the delay.That full Mailbag article here.
"We have gotten a couple of calls from people worried that their checks have not cleared their bank accounts as quickly as they assumed. So I have explained that the process takes extra time because of the sheer volume of payments we are processing," she said. "Actually the biggest source of delay is the new billing system adopted by the county last year and implemented this year. It is a fine system with many new features, however, it does have a steep learning curve."
The lactation room was described as "not pretty," but a legal solution under a new law going into effect. From the News-Gazette last week:
The new lactation space is being provided in a small first-floor storage room at the county courthouse in Urbana to meet the requirements of a new state law that took effect June 1.
The law requires any building housing a circuit courtroom to provide a private space for nursing moms to pump breast milk that isn't in a bathroom. The law specifies the lactation room must have, at a minimum, a table, a chair and an electrical outlet.
The lactation space at the Champaign County Courthouse will continue to be used as storage space for paper products such as paper towels and toilet paper, according to county Facilities Director Dana Brenner.
This was the best the county could come up with to meet the new legal requirements, because there's not much available space at the courthouse to spare, Brenner said.
That full article here.
The local lobbying effort in D.C. was covered in the News-Gazette earlier this month:
As part of a lobbying effort to get federal support for area projects, members of the Champaign County First group headed to Washington, D.C., this week to lobby for projects like The Yards in Champaign, extending the Kickapoo Trail to Urbana and piloting a program that could help villages like Royal.
More than a dozen Champaign County business and government leaders spent Tuesday and Wednesday in the nation's capital, advocating to Illinois Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, as well as Reps. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, and Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville. It was part of a yearly trip for countywide officials to pitch projects and initiatives that could use federal help.
From gripes about Amtrak service to the Mahomet Aquifer and other smaller projects, officials walked up and down the Capitol and congressional offices to rub shoulders with federal officials who just might be able to help.
Full article with a lot of additional information and details here.
And finally, there's been some slight movement on the Reentry Housing Issue that the Champaign County Board had previously encouraged the City of Champaign to take on after recommendations in the Racial Justice Task Force. The latest updates on that at the C-U Local Cheat Sheet here: Housing Ordinance Study Session.
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