Section 14 Public Purpose

• Library: Tax Law 2009

For the tax device to be sustained in its entirety, the object and purpose for which the tax is levied will have to be found to be within the acceptable meaning of “public purpose.” Elting v. Hickman, 72 S.W. 700 (Mo. 1903). See generally Dysart v. City of St. Louis, 11 S.W.2d 1045 (Mo. banc 1928). The object of the tax device must involve a benefit to the taxpayer that is direct and immediate. It cannot be collateral, remote, or consequential, and the benefit or convenience must be at least theoretically available to each taxpayer affected by it. State ex rel. City of Jefferson v. Smith, 154 S.W.2d 101 (Mo. banc 1941). But seeLakewood Park Cemetery Ass’n v. Metro. St. Louis Sewer Dist., 530 S.W.2d 240 (Mo. banc 1975).

While the...