Opinion ID: 2103431
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: McKENZIE HAS STANDING TO CHALLENGE THE PARSONAGE EXEMPTION

Text: This court will not determine the constitutionality of the provisions of an act    where the party urging the invalidity of such provisions is not in any way aggrieved by their operation. ( Liberty National Bank v. Collins (1944), 388 Ill. 549, 559; Schreiber v. County Board of School Trustees (1964), 31 Ill.2d 121, 125.) The churches contend that McKenzie, as a taxpayer, has not alleged an interest in the controversy over the constitutionality of the parsonage exemption sufficient to confer standing upon him to raise that issue. We disagree. Article IX, section 6, of the Constitution provides: The General Assembly by law may exempt from taxation only the property of the State, units of local government and school districts and property used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, and for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes. The General Assembly by law may grant homestead exemptions or rent credits. (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Const. 1970, art. IX, sec. 6.) By establishing the principle that property taxes will be levied against all property in the State except for property exclusively used for the purposes described, article IX, section 6, guarantees every real property owner in this State that the burdens of real property taxation will be evenly distributed among all owners of such property. See also Ill. Const. 1970, art. IX, sec. 4(a) (taxes upon real property shall be levied uniformly). McKenzie alleged that the granting or approval of parsonage exemptions for property owned in Champaign County by persons other than the Plaintiff raises the amount of real property tax which Plaintiff must pay, an allegation which is admitted by the Board in its answer to the complaint. By bringing himself within the ambit of the specific guarantee set forth in article IX, section 6, and by claiming that his tax liability is generally affected by a statute which facially violates that guarantee, we believe that McKenzie has alleged a sufficient stake or interest in this controversy to confer standing upon him in this action. See generally Standing of One Taxpayer to Complain of Underassessment or Nonassessment of Property of Another for State and Local Taxation, Annot., 9 A.L.R.4th 428, 471-79 (1981). The churches rely on authority holding that there is no right in an individual taxpayer to bring a suit for the collection of taxes, but a suit having for its purpose such collection must be brought by the person or agency designated by statute for that purpose. ( People ex rel. Morse v. Chambliss (1948), 399 Ill. 151, 158; see also Hoffman v. Northwestern University (1976), 40 Ill. App.3d 1012, 1016.) These cases, however, differ from this action, for here the plaintiff seeks to enjoin public officials from enforcing a tax-exemption statute which allegedly is unconstitutional on its face. [A]n unconstitutional exercise of the taxing    power is intolerable in our system of government and    the courts should be readily available to immediately restrain such excesses of authority. ( Paul v. Blake (Fla. App. 1979), 376 So.2d 256, 259 (holding that taxpayer has standing to challenge the constitutionality of certain property tax exemptions but denying standing to raise other allegations of unlawfulness).) We reserve, however, the question of whether a taxpayer may bring an injunction action against public officials where the taxpayer alleges that the grant of an exemption for a specific parcel of property violates article IX, section 6.