Village filed action against county, county clerk, and others, petitioning for a writ of mandamus requiring that alleged incremental taxes owed to village be paid and sought declaratory judgment regarding payments and alleged violations of the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act.
The Circuit Court granted defendants’ motion for involuntary dismissal based upon certain defects or defenses. Village appealed.
The Appellate Court held that:
- Village was entitled to payment for taxes collected from its tax increment finance (TIF) districts, but
- Reversal was not required based on village’s failure to join necessary parties.
Village did not forfeit on appeal issue of whether county and county clerk were required to collect and then pay village funds from incremental taxes collected from village’s tax increment finance (TIF) districts established by ordinance, where village’s response to county and clerk’s motion to dismiss argued that while a TIF district’s life expectancy was 23 years, the last payment came in the 24th year because the property had to be assessed in the 23rd year as well.
Village was entitled to a 24th payment from county and county clerk for incremental taxes collected from village’s tax increment finance (TIF) districts, even though the life expectancy of a TIF was limited to 23 years under the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act; in the year after village adopted ordinances establishing TIF districts, county distributed its first payment to village for taxes levied in the prior year, county made 23 yearly distributions of taxes, life of village’s TIF districts did not exceed the 23-year limitation, and therefore, the fact that 24 payments were required, rather than 23, did not mean that a violation of the Act occurred.
Absence of school districts and fire protection district in village’s mandamus and declaratory judgment action against county and county clerk, which sought payment for incremental taxes collected from village’s tax increment finance (TIF) districts, did not require reversal of trial court’s order dismissing village’s complaint based on failure to join necessary parties, where court’s order did not materially affect school districts or fire protection district.