Overshadowed Productions, a Christian missionary
theater production company, has asked for a grant of
$450,000 from the
Village of Itasca, a suburb of Chicago located three
miles west of
O'Hare International Airport in
Dupage County,
on the east side of Interstate 290 at Thorndale Avenue.
At this week's Itasca Village
Board meeting, Overshadowed president
Reba Hervas, who attended Bob
Jones University and who is the wife of Itasca
Village Attorney
Charles Hervas, asked that her Christian ministry be
given the tax dollars to assist them with the cost of
purchasing a permanent home in the village.
According to their web
site,
Overshadowed's purpose is "to point the way to
Christ" and their mission is to provide "drama that is
overshadowed by the truth and power of God and His Word,
the Bible."
The money Mrs. Hervas requested would come from taxes
that the Village has collected from guests staying in
Itasca hotels. The hotel tax money, however, is
intended to be used to promote tourism, not
Christianity, in Itasca.
This raises the question of state/church separation, and
whether using tax dollars for this purpose
is constitutional.
The
Illinois Constitution, at
Article I, Section 3, states, in pertinent part,
that "no person shall be required to support any
ministry against his consent, nor shall any preference
be given by law to any religious denomination."
At
Article X, Section 3, the Illinois Constitution
states, in pertinent part, that "Neither the General
Assembly nor any [municipality] shall ever pay from any
public fund, anything in aid of any sectarian purpose;
nor shall any grant or donation of land, money or other
personal property ever be made by the State, or any such
public corporation, for any sectarian purpose."
The
Code of Civil Procedure is the body of State laws
that governs how civil court operates (as
contrasted with the Code of Criminal
Procedure, which governs criminal court.)
Article XI of the Code is entitled, "Injunction."
Part 3 of Article XI is entitled, "Disbursement of
Public Moneys." Section 11-301 of Part 3 is the law
that allows citizens like me to challenge and stop
unconstitutional expenditures of public funds in
Illinois. This law, cited as 735 ILCS 5/11-301, is the
law that I successfully used to stop
Pilgrim
Baptist Church in Chicago from getting the million
tax dollars that ex-Governor Blagojevich had promised
them. This law states, in pertinent part:
An action to
restrain and enjoin the disbursement of public funds by
any officer or officers of the State government may be
maintained either by the Attorney General or by any
citizen and taxpayer of the State.
Section 11-303 of Part 3 then describes the
procedure that a private citizen shall use to sue in
court to stop the unconstitutional expenditure.
Charles Hervas.
Photo from Hervas,
Condon & Bersani
I spoke with Charles Hervas, who not only is Reba's
husband and the Village Attorney, but who is also on the
Board of Directors of Overshadowed Productions. Mr.
Hervas assured me that the theater company was aware
of, sensitive to and supportive of the issue of
state/church separation. He said that the $450,000
grant request was in response to a specific "wish list"
question from one of the Village Trustees, who asked
what the theater would like to have as an incentive for
staying in town. The theater currently operates out of
a church in Itasca and is looking for permanent and
larger quarters.
Mr. Hervas said that, if any money at all is used
from the hotel tax fund, it is far more likely that
the money would be spent only to encourage theater
patrons to patronize the restaurants, hotels and other
businesses in the Village. He and I agreed that that
certainly would be a legitimate constitutional purpose
for the use of the Village's hotel tax fund.
However, Mr. Hervas stated that there still is
substantial uncertainty as to whether the Village Board
will do anything regarding Overshadowed.
Also, today, I spoke with Itasca Mayor Jeff Pruyn
(pronounced "Prine"). I explained to Mayor Pruyn the
constitutional and legal concepts outlined above, and
offered to make a similar presentation at a future
meeting of the Village Board should the Mayor feel that
such a presentation would be helpful and desirable.
Like Mr. Hervas, Mr. Pruyn was pleasant and
cooperative. He made it clear that he and the Village
were interested in doing the right thing, legally and
constitutionally. The issues were, first, figuring out
what the things are that it is permissible for the
Village to do, and which of those permissible
things, are things that the Village Board would like to
choose to do.
Still, it bears watching, and I'm just the guy to do
that, so stay tuned.
