A Cook County judge has dismissed with prejudice a motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to block the completion of the Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park. The court agreed with Gerald Rohrer, Jr. of IFMK Law, Ltd. representing the Village of Bedford Park that at the outset the plaintiff did not have standing to seek injunctive relief stopping the Village from continuing to fund construction. When completed, the Sports Complex will be used, in part, as the practice facility for the WNBA Chicago Sky who were co-defendants in the suit.
Rohrer argued that taxpayer standing arises from the plaintiff's liability to replenish public revenues depleted by an allegedly unlawful government action. (See, e.g., Barber v. City of Springfield, 406 Ill.App.3d 1099 1102, 348 Ill.Dec. 247, 943 N.E.2d 1157 (2011)). The Judge agreed with Rohrer that paying the Motor Fuel Tax when buying gas does not make a person liable to replenish public revenue in any particular municipality.