MARION - A legal authority for the Illinois Press Association said strict regulations governing the publication of legal notices were broken in Williamson County with the recent publication of quadrennial property tax reassessments.

It was a decision that could come with serious consequences, said Don Craven, general counsel for the Illinois Press Association.

"It could result in a challenge to the assessment for every township in the county for which notice was improperly published," Craven said.

Williamson County's quadrennial reassessment, a 110-page document, was printed by The Little Paper, a weekly publication that has been publishing since January.

The reassessment, printed for $35,000, was inserted into the Marion Daily Republican, Herrin Spokesman, The Independent and The Courier.

Jeff Robinson, supervisor of assessments for Williamson County, said on Tuesday that he chose The Little Paper because it was more than $4,500 in savings from the assessment four years ago, which was printed by the Marion Daily Republican.

Robinson said the quadrennial reassessment does not classify as a legal notice - a statement Craven said is incorrect.

"It's a legal notice required by statute to be published in a newspaper published in the county," Craven said.

There was debate at a Tuesday meeting of the board of commissioners over whether The Little Paper constitutes a legal medium for legal notices.

According to Illinois' Newspaper Legal Notice Act, a newspaper that is permitted to run legal notices must have published continuously for at least a year prior to the first publication of the notice.

Craven also said legal notices must be published as an original part of the paper - "run of the press" - and cannot be published as an insertion into the publication.

"'Which paper' becomes a moot question because of the mere fact that it was an insert," Craven said. "The statute doesn't say it should be inserted into a paper. It shall be published in the paper. An insert is not publication."

Craven said the "ultimate penalty" for not publishing the legal notice properly could be that tax assessment will be set aside.

"There are a couple of cases where, in the case of an election notice, for instance, the results of elections were set aside," Craven said.

Robinson deferred comment to the Williamson County state's attorney's office, which declined to comment.

ashley.wiehle@thesouthern.com

997-3356 ext. 5807