Editor's Pick: Judge Grants Motion to Dismiss District 39 Lawsuit Appeal
After almost 19 months of lawsuits and appeals, it seems School District 39's legal battles have ended.
Taxpayers United Of America
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Sunday, December 16, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
UPDATE: Judge Grants Motion to Dismiss District 39 Lawsuit Appeal
After almost 19 months of lawsuits and appeals, School District 39's legal battles have ended.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Editor's Pick: Plaintiff Files Motion to Voluntarily Dismiss District 39 Lawsuit Appeal
After almost 19 months of lawsuits and appeals, it seems School District 39's legal battles have ended.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
UPDATE: Judge Grants Motion to Dismiss District 39 Lawsuit Appeal
After almost 19 months of lawsuits and appeals, it seems School District 39's legal battles have ended.
Update: Three Illinois Appellate Court judges signed an order Friday granting Herbert Sorock and Taxpayers United of America's motion to voluntarily dismiss their appeal of their 19-month-long lawsuit against Wilmette School District 39. Earlier: The plaintiff in a lawsuit that accused Wilmette School District 39 of misleading voters during an April 2011 referendum filed a motion Monday to voluntarily dismiss their Illinois Appellate Court appeal. “TUA recently filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit given the reluctance of the courts to enforce clear requirements of Illinois law,” Wilmette resident Herbert Sorock wrote in a recent press release . Herbert Sorock and Taxpayers United of America (TUA), an anti-tax group, have …
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Court Dismisses Tax-Levy Legal Appeal Against District 39
A court recently dismissed a legal appeal that challenged Wilmette School District 39’s tax-hike referendum approved in 2011.
An appeal filed by a group to overturn the results of Wilmette School District 39’s successful tax-increase referendum was dismissed by the First District Appellate Court, according to a press release. “We are pleased that this lawsuit is finally behind us. District 39 prevailed on all of the issues at the Circuit Court and we were confident that the judgments of the lower court would stand,” Karen Donnan, president of the District 39 Board of Education said in a statement. An attorney for Taxpayers United of America (TUA), the group that filed the original lawsuit, says he plans to challenge the ruling, according to TribLocal.com. The original lawsuit, filed by Wilmette resident Herbet Sorock and TUA alleged that language appearing on the…
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Quis Custodiet
10:16 am on Friday, June 1, 2012
The wasteful, frivolous litigation that Herb Sorock filed just keeps on going. Apparently, Herb Sorock's cohorts at "Taxpayers United" and their attorney have filed an appeal up to the Supreme Court of Illinois, racking up losses as they go. I hope Herb Sorock has put some money aside to help pay for this costly waste of resources for this community. more ›
Friday, August 26, 2011
D39 Announces Revised FY2012 Budget
Budget will be submitted despite referendum lawsuit.
The Wilmette School Board met Monday evening at the Mikaelian Education Center to present the fiscal year 2012 budget, discuss service-based learning and announce the winner of a district-wide green contest. The FY2012 operations budget—which covers educational, maintenance, and transportation expenditures as well as pensions—estimates $55.4 million in spending, nearly $6 million less than the operational fund revenue. Earlier: District 39 Announces Proposed FY2012 Budget Superintendent Ray Lechner said the FY2012 budget was close to the tentative budget presented in June, however slight adjustments had been made to reflect actual salaries, grants, general state aid and revenue garnered from the property tax increase as a result of an …
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Appeals to Merge in D97 and D39 Tax Lawsuits
Procedural move in appellate court will have little impact on the status of the case, attorneys on both sides agree.
Taxpayers United of America can seek one appeal against Wilmette District 39 and Oak Park Elementary District 97 instead of two, according to an order issued last week by the First District Illinois Appellate Court. TUA filed an appeal last month after Cook County Circuit Court judges dismissed both cases, which in effect sought to overturn the results of the districts’ successful tax referendums in April. Earlier: What's next for the District 39 Referendum? The move will have very little impact on the issues at hand, said Andrew Spiegel, TUA’s attorney and Rob Swain, District 97’s attorney. “The appellate court realizes that both cases involve the same issues, so it decided to lump the two together and decide it once,” Swain said. “They …
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Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Wilmette School District to Assess Cost of Lawsuit
D39 will be evaluating money spent on its defense.
Wilmette School District 39 today announced Tuesday they will be assessing the financial costs of their recent lawsuit filed by Herbert Sorock and Taxpayers United of America (TUA). School Board President Karen Donnan said in a press release, "The Board has asked Superintendent Ray Lechner for a complete accounting of all money spent in defense of this lawsuit, and we will be considering our options for recouping these costs." The lawsuit, dismissed on June 23 by Judge Rita Novak, claimed D39 had misled voters by using illegal ballot language in April's tax hike referendum. Sorock and TUA claimed that in describing the property tax increase, D39 failed to include the state equalizer which would have listed the additional tax amount as $198…
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Andrea Hart
8:20 am on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
GrossPoint and Margaret, I know that the District is currently trying to compute the money it spent during this lawsuit. We will let readers know what that figure is as soon as it is available. more ›
Friday, June 24, 2011
Judge Throws Out School Tax Levy Case
District 39 wins lawsuit over ballot language as new rate takes effect July 1.
A Cook County judge has thrown out a case challenging Wilmette Public Schools District 39's approved tax-hike ballot measure, saying she needed to "rule expeditiously" since the new levy is scheduled to take effect next week. Circuit Court Judge Rita Novak granted the district's motion to dismiss the case initiated in May by Herbert Sorock and Taxpayers United of America (TUA) during a hearing at the Daley Center in downtown Chicago on Thursday afternoon. The lawsuit took District 39 to task over the language used in the April 5 referendum, which called for a property tax increase in order to help the school system plug a $5.5 million budget gap. On Thursday, they sought a temporary restraining order against the hike. The ballot measure, …
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Margaret Mcintyre
8:24 am on Monday, August 8, 2011
"said Dalianis, who is with the law firm of Franczek Radelet." Four term School Board member John Relias is a partner with Franczek and Radelet; Relias has been a strong advocate of the School Board fighting resident tax appeals, which taxing bodies such as schools and libraries have the right to do. With the increase in tax appeals since the referendum was passed, don't be surprised if Relias' … more ›
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Law Firm Accused of Misleading Wilmette Voters
District 39 awaits a court ruling in the legal action against the approved April 5 tax referendum.
In court papers filed against Wilmette School District 39 last week, Taxpayers United of America (TUA) accused the law firm of Chapman and Cutler of misleading both Wilmette and Oak Park voters into passing property tax increases on April 5 ballots. The TUA along with Herbert Sorock filed a brief on June 8 that alleged Chapman and Cutler deliberately used faulty ballot language that made the tax increases for the two towns look less severe. The court challenge started nearly a month ago. According to the brief, the tax referendums failed to include the state equalizer in explaining how much the rate hikes would effect homeowners. The plaintiffs' attorney, Andrew Spiegel, said this omission was in violation of the state's property tax code…
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Quis Custodiet
1:38 pm on Thursday, June 23, 2011
Herb Sorock loses BIG today. The judge dismisses the whole suit with prejudice. Sorock will of course make noise about appealing the ruling and painting himself as a champion of taxpayers. But do not be misled: Herb Sorock does not act in the interests of Wilmette, its taxpayers or the children of the village. He is interested only in furthering the misguided politics of a national lobbying … more ›
melanie Lewis
9:39 am on Sunday, December 16, 2012
They don't care. To put it nicely. Seems premeditated, even the outcome. Just pathetic. more ›