Court Opinion

ID: 9885016
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:27:52.504404+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:39:28.307093
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Fulton, dissenting: I cannot agree with the majority opinion in this case. It appears to me that the law is well settled in Illinois that money derived from a tax levy for one purpose cannot be spent for another purpose; that the funds cannot be commingled, and that taxes are in effect a trust fund to be used only for the purpose levied. Knopf v. People ex rel. City of Chicago 185 Ill. 20; People ex rel. Schlaeger v. Richè, 396 Ill. 85. It is my conclusion that if taxpayers have the right to know the purposes for which money raised by taxes is to be spent, and to be assured that, when raised, it will be spent for those purposes, it is equally true that the taxpayer has the right to insist that any losses of revenue due to refunds occasioned by an illegal levy, be confined to those funds and purposes for which the appropriated funds were originally proposed to be spent.