People ex rel. Schlaeger v. Allyn

C. B. Allyn (plaintiff) owned property in Barrington, Illinois, a town located in both Lake County and Cook County. Allyn’s property was located in Cook County and was subject to property taxes as determined by Cook County. The village of Barrington, the Barrington Park District, and school district no. 4 (collectively, the common taxing bodies) taxed all property owned in Barrington. For each $100 of property value assessed, the village tax rate was $0.65, the park-district tax rate was $0.29, and the school-district tax rate was $1.82. To determine the value of property in Barrington, the department of revenue first assessed the full value of each piece of property. Lake County and Cook County each used fractional property assessment, meaning that their property taxes were applied to a portion of the property’s full value. In Lake County, 21 percent of the property’s full value was taxed. In Cook County, 75 percent of the property’s full value was taxed. Because Allyn’s property was located in Cook County, he paid a higher amount in property taxes than those who owned similar property in the Lake County portion of Barrington. Allyn filed a lawsuit in state court against Victor Schlaeger, the tax collector of Cook County (defendant), challenging the taxes applied by the common taxing bodies. Allyn argued that the taxes were discriminatory and violated the Illinois constitution, which included a uniformity provision that required property taxes on similarly situated property to be uniform, because the taxes were not applied uniformly to property owners in Lake County and Cook County. The county court held in favor of the collector. Allyn appealed.