Illinois appears set to eliminate its Independent Tax Tribunal, a move that would have access-to-justice consequences for any taxpayers challenging state assessments.
The proposal to roll tribunal responsibilities into the Department of Revenue leans on efficiency and marginal cost savings as upsides. But it misses the point—these check systems aim to impose procedural distance between assessment and oversight, not necessarily to further efficiency.
Removing that separation would simplify administration, but it also would reduce the checks that separation was designed to provide. This would result in a net increase in the cost of challenging the state on assessments.
State tax ...