issue and said it's only investigation and uncovered no case law in which a special service area was challenged by administrative review which would essentially is what a property tax court appeal would have been and they said by contrast we found cases in which plaintiff sought to clear a tory judgements regarding the validity of special service areas in ordinances and there's no question that they were valid that there is no suggestion that they were improper vehicles for such a determination but it is certainly was different people's was and also i agree with you that the facts are slightly different your honor but i don't think the end result should be part of the problem dead you have been is let's assume that mr hopkins has to be first into the property tax code ok so he goes and he supposedly files with the assessor some of the defendants seem to claim that he can go straight to the circuit court of cook county the way i mean the property tax code is perseus to file these tests or go through the property review procedure and then finally end up in the circuit court  ordinance you can go or do you get the property summary she's in the forms they tell you to fill out they'll tell you give us a valuation of what the property is worth give us a vacancy affidavit give us what your leases are worth and that's how they're supposedly going to assess whether your property is over assessed a assessed they can't decide the political event organs it would seem to me to be a very futile act even if you were to go through that whole procedure they say well we can't do anything for you to keep going upstairs until you finally get to the circuit court of cook county it seems the a very futile act for m don't agree with your honor respectfully if the city of chicago decided that it were to assess property taxes against creaks because for some reason they decided let's raise in twenty percent against reaching maybe they did something in history and know about their sex or sexual orientation or gender but at the final property tax if you appeal you go to the assessor's office and then go through the administrative procedure no i would say it's unconstitutional i mean end up in federal court maybe i'll end up in state court but i don't agree that my only route would have to be through the property tax appeal mr hawkins isn't claiming that the assessment is invalid he's claiming the ordinance is void or invalid because the city failed to follow to statutory requirements and millennium park address that difference and i think it actually they made the same arguments the millenium park and they said the property tax color is your only route for which you can see relief in millennium park said no the on authorized by law exception still applies there is nothing in the property tax code which even addresses whether or not an assessor is office can reveal anything other then whether your property is over under assessed and whether or not it should be ex t and i think it also say that the case is but that's controlling law if you look at the property tax code it says the board can only review the assessment and confirm the revise the assessment has no ability to say that the  declaratory judgment now if you saying that he can file directly under the property tax code it has kind of had him in the ministry of review proceeding well supposedly the circuit court is going to review what was done folderol that's the whole point of having an administrative review if the assessor is office and the property tax appeals board never reached the issue what exactly is there for the circuit courts to assess if the assessor says we had no authority to even look at the ordinance to begin with declaratory judgments are really the only way to assess whether or not i mean this appellate has complied with the existing laws in establishing a special service area and here it's clear that they haven't i mean the application the documents in the record show that the applicant for special service area forty five didn't even have an office in the area and one of the requirements of the special service area is the only room worker has to start the application process well millennium recognize lift the taxes on authorized by law you can do both which you agree with that i agree on ok so the circuit court said i'm not going to get into the declaratory because you didn't file within one hundred sixty five days it seems to me that the circuit court ignored the question of whether the tax was on hoth right by law and if it was through have been in those meetings whatever then he also had the authority to declare that the tax was in family and therefore should not have been levied should not have been paid and should be refunded since i agree with your honor ok so so confusing the tax code filing a declaratory you could have done both but you didn't you did one and the question is by doing the one was it sufficient to get your foot in the door and to litigate whether the special service federal your relief has to be through the property tax code and i think that's another problem that you have here is that if it's i'm authorized by law which it is they have no with already to try to channel us into the property tax code as well and look at the problem because because it is so if the picture doing is on the authorize in the cold in the property tax code doesn't apply they do ok to apply the remedy it seems to be rather inconsistent that then they could always always you can see that if you if you won their case assuming that you were right you would get your payment back right i'm assuming that that would be the case here and then you would have to do it for two thousand and ten and two thousand and eleven in two thousand  throw it out again understanding that everybody else who did not help in this case all the other taxpayers would gain from your hard work it be difficult for me to believe even the city should go would continue to enforce and th handled as a matter of fact i don't think it's a text objection case so i don't think that i need to fall within their purview i think i can file a class action and why should i be able to should i really have three hundred people or whatever it is going into court every year seeking the same determination and what happens if i get different determinations by different judges well that was an issue really is i'm sure you hope by the state legislature a different legislative body and there would have been the idea just to is a matter of public record because we do think you should reach the merits of the claim as i say forty five was established by somebody outside outside its area which it was i mean if you look at documents in the record there's the if you look at c thirteen of the record that's actually the cover letter for the application and if you look at c fifteen that's the actual application which seems to being given and then see eighteen through c c seventeen through c nineteen are the people that are going to be affected by the ordinance with all due respect i've never actually seen an application from other s s a so i think one of the arguments was that wasn't the complete application they're not saying that ok they were for software as the applicant they're saying ok that's not the less economic disclosure statements every year with budgets and the employer can't is his far south they make the argument maybe the applicant for the economic disclosure statement of the one doing the services as far south it seems to me it i agree that there is no factual finding to that effect to the recording the whole purpose of the recording statute of course is to put people i know is that something has been recorded against a piece of property and that's why they even put in pull out everything that's recorded against the property your mortgages whatever else you will not find leases fire last week for walk ins and the rest of these people as i say forty five being recorded against those properties the city's argument  well we filed it with the recorder needs now there's nothing in the record which indicates they filed that with the record or these they're just saying that in a brief that we asked that it be stricken but finally recording at two different things the whole purpose of recording is to make sure that the public  and anybody else everybody else knows because perhaps or people that want to buy this property that something is recorded against the property gives them notice clearly public records show that it's not recorded electronics have any other questions i know they have a lot of time to go and i'd peace accord my name is richard a senior counsel with the city of chicago law department this case comes to the court on appeal of the circuit courts to sing the song hawkins complaint objecting to the city's two thousand and nine  property taxes to fund s s a forty five and requesting a refund of those property tax now dismissal was granted pursuant to today's six nineteen and that was filed by all the fence in this case and under two desks one thousand all allegations are accepted as true for purposes of the motion and for purposes of argument before the court today now in two thousand  question really gets down to is this a properly but or is this it is probably led on to six one in the allegations as i read them is that the city try to out the language that is used is that the tax will be invalid it also says the ordinance will be invalid if the statute is not employed if for example if the need is that right spells out the distinction between an authorized by law and a procedural defects and authorized by law means you have no power to tax in a certain area  in a special service area of the city it was never properly there you hear the authority to do that in the city and any tax to texas district has the power to an act invalid some reason or another and ultimately a prevailing object or bring a timely filed case pursuant to the property tax code if they meet their burden of proof obtaining obtain  finding that that levy or part of that levy was invalid and as a result of that they will obtain a refund and that's exactly what's being alleged here that this ready that was imposed and passed by the city council was invalid and that is the language that is used in the s s a statute the failure to record within sixty days renders it invalid a finding of invalid allows you to obtain inertia special service area create a valid tax before a certified copy of your ordinance establishing where altering the boundaries and then there are several other references and then  it references that it passed to be filed for the record in the office of the record or the ordinance must be recorded no later than sixty days after the date the ordinance was adopted and then understood ordinance establishing the special services area recorded a license and clearly under the rock there was no authority to assess the license there was nothing the assessor could do to rectify any procedural mistake there was no authority from the get go but he started with the premise that it determination through in the clerical that what the city did was not within the confines of the states and therefore i'm authorized to collect the taxes it really is what he's asking comprehensive scheme to address objections to taxes levies or assessments well you know i really don't want to eat a boy but it seems to me that if you were rationale is book the majority and in that case said since the assessor had no authority from the get go to assess a license it wasn't authorized by law the contracts i'm simply trying to make is that here the castration and the proper tax code make clear that the city has the authority to create an s s a and issue a levy to fund the s s a that's that's in stark contrast to the long i wonder whether here but here i would i would take issue with both of the underlying factual allegations with regard with regard to the issue of of not having met the taxing district and frankly that that i believe is the reason for the rationale in the legislature passing the provisions providing what they call a complete remedy for objections to taxes not face protracted litigation with regard to disputes about taxes if if he authorized by law an exception were as broad as proposed by opposing counsel that would swallow up the the the statutory procedure provided for by the illinois legislature and the floor of taxes could be  enjoined and tied up feasibly and years of litigation so that there is a very powerful policy reason underlying that  fundamental misunderstanding of the property tax code the property tax code does not require any administrative remedies to be sought in this case which is a an objection levy the property tax code only provides exhaustion of administrative remedies where an administrative remedy is provided for in the property tax code and mistreated remedies only apply with regard to objections to remedy by going directly to the circuit court filing an objection to the levy in a timely objection to the reading and the the issues that he raises can be addressed in the context of a improperly dismissed this case is clearly not appropriate for disposition but must be remanded off for development of the record on factual and legal issues that might remain  however we believe bed of the court to properly dismiss this is an untimely filed objection case under the property tax code and we respect for your question to affirm and i'll see the rest of the time to my did not believe that the facts as pled lead to a tax that was authorized by law and i'm sure i probably don't need to remind the court of this but in a two six one thousand motion facts are deemed true but conclusions of law such as the fact that a certain tax is an authorized by law is not being true that's reviewable by the courts a judge paul did review this unauthorized by law issue then he did not believe that the defects complained of by mr all hearkens page forty two of the supplemental record that was found in the bomber first twenty twelfth the court said and authorized by law an affordable ordinance the chasm between that is about the size of the grand canyon and that is the difference dismissing the case and i think he's allowed to make that determination based upon the facts  tax and slowly in a lackey case there was a discussion of an annexation ordinance being void and therefore certain probably could not have been annexed by the texas trick and again that was not an unauthorized by a lot hacks so the assumption that just because it's played that as an authorized means it's an authorized we can step outside the code i think is improper i believe the circuit court can weigh whether or not this is the taxes authorized by law and clearly in the pleadings he is not pled could kind of force preserve district create a special service area they're not allowed to do that that's not authorized by law but saying procedural defects in the made by the city in creating the term a nation that the objection petition wasn't was put in properly denied there was no proof creation objection petition alleged here this case comes to us after this ordinance is treated these two taxes are levied these taxes are because the the whole purpose of the code is to provide districts or collection and if taxpayers are correct on objection such as this ordinance wasn't valid they could pay no refund with interest and their interests are protected because the point of hasn't requested any relief from far self snores there really any belief that far south would be capable of giving in this case there's not a legally sufficient claim against far south in the circuit court plain ted first self your honor they are the ones the applicant that set up the s s a forty five which is what we allege they're also the ones that are actually servicing the area i think they have this is an interested party they certainly have a right to be joined in there they right though don't they get to pick whether or not they want to come in and join well into the pool as opposed to drain the pool well the problem then of course you would have is you would have a judgment which may be entered and of course they're affected by it we don't want them to come in and claim well you know what you never gave us any notice honor it actually is in the complaint that we're not seeking relief against them and that we're simply joining them here in because they may be an interested party if i can address some of the other issues your honor's first of all the city says that simply because they have power to act in that area would take some with the property tax area under the constitution that anything they can can't be held and bail it well and given your honour's an example of course they have the power to tax s s property taxes they have the power to assess else taxes well no they don't have  texas you know but the city of course can't assess property taxes based on certain things race gender what else they have the power to assess property taxes they don't have an open license to do anything they despite that you don't even have to go to the basic property taxes on race or gender you can look at some of the other cases like goes well and things where the assessors collecting an extra ten dollars in most cases help that these are an authorized by i find it difficult for them to firstly assume that the fourth in the property tax code and then based on that assumption say well even if a determination isn't made you're only relief is in the property tax code the first of the tax code is to provide some sort of stability of course for the city and other taxing districts to have funds coming in and they have a step which the normally way for people to get refunds and according to their view i guess the court judgment is some sort of disorderly way for people to go and get refunds but mr hawkins has to pay his property taxes whether he files a declaratory judgment or not is where is everybody else there's nothing in the property tax co judgment action is filed as a probe into a property tax appeal so this is going it's money either way i think the arguments that the defendants are making that  y we filed in chancery the defendants came in and said no chancery judge you can hear this because it's a property tax court you know and they transferred us back down to the texas miscellaneous section then the only argument they made to judge paul is well all it wants is a property test appeal you have no jurisdiction i don't know perhaps just call made some sort of remarks on the record but there were no issues before judge paul at least is paid by the any of us as to assessing whether or that's something that's a matter of public record unless you're honest want to believe that recording simply means finding but you're honest can simply go like i said before and in this and look at the pin numbers that are in the record and look to see whether or not as i say forty five was recorded against the property owners but the city never