Public Finance
We provide guidance to park officials on budget, taxation, and public finance compliance, including ordinances, fiscal strategies, fund use, bonds, disclosures, and referendum requirements.
Park District Public Finance
We are often asked to advise our clients on budget, taxation (levy), finance and public finance compliance issues, including specific advice regarding the preparation of budget and appropriation ordinances, levy ordinances, Truth in Taxation procedures, interfund transfers, use of special fund assets including tort immunity fund and special recreation levy, fiscal strategies, official statements, bond ordinances and transcript documents, post-issuance disclosures, and referendum rules and requirements.
We assist clients with avoiding missteps in the levy and budget process, including failure to publish hearing notice, failure to conduct a hearing, errors in the hearing process, failure to adopt or file the ordinance on time, errors in fund balances, levy amounts, percentage of increase over prior year’s levy, failure to determine the proper amount of the prior year’s extension, failure to provide sufficient detail in the ordinance, provision of too much detail, and failure to direct the clerk on how to allocate levy capacity across funds when total levy exceeds the PTELL cap.
We assist clients with avoiding missteps in the levy and budget process.
The attorneys on our team represent local municipalities, school districts, and other state and local entities in a range of tax-exempt and taxable financing transactions. Our experience enables the firm to provide comprehensive representation to municipal and government clients in commerce and finance law matters.
Our experience enables the firm to provide comprehensive representation to municipal and government clients.
Public Finance & Taxation
Preserving and enhancing revenue is critical to providing vital public services. Our attorneys are knowledgeable about strategies for protecting and increasing revenues from property taxes and other sources.
We counsel clients on issues regarding finance issues including Truth in Taxation procedures and other legal requirements relating to tax levies, interfund transfers, use of tort immunity funds, fiscal strategies in the tax cap era, and referendum requirements. Robbins Schwartz attorneys guide our public sector clients in complying with the applicable state laws so that their annual tax levies can be defended against challenges by tax rate objectors. We work with our clients to expand opportunities presented by intergovernmental collaboration through TIF districts, economic development zones and abatement incentives designed to promote the growth of the local tax base.
We place a strong emphasis on teamwork, which enables us to leverage the breadth and depth of knowledge of all our attorneys, paralegals and staff.
Areas of Specialty:
- Bond Issues
- Economic Development
- Defense of Levies Against Rate Objections
- Property Tax Abatement
- Property Tax Assessment Appeals
- Tax Collection
- Tax Exempt Finance
Tax Challenges
We vigorously defend tax assessment challenges to protect the property tax base which helps to generate revenues upon which our clients rely. We also prepare developer-donation agreements and advise land/cash contribution ordinances. Our real property tax practice group attorneys work with tax appraisal experts to fend off unwarranted assessment reductions of commercial and industrial property to preserve property tax revenues, avoid financially debilitating refund liability and maintain equitable distribution of the tax burden among all property owners in the community.
