Section 16 Attacking the Validity of the Ordinance

• Library: Tax Law 2009

Consistent with the principle that a municipality can have only that taxing authority that is expressed, reasonably implied, or actually indispensable, ordinances enacted as taxing devices will be given a strict interpretation, and ambiguities or doubt will be resolved against the authority and in favor of the taxpayer. Adams v. City of St. Louis, 563 S.W.2d 771 (Mo. banc 1978). Statutory cities cannot act without a specific grant of power, and then only within the parameters of the statutory grant, Schoonover v. Lampe,682 S.W.2d 115 (Mo. App. E.D. 1984), unlike municipalities acting under a constitutional home rule charter, Cape Motor Lodge, Inc. v. City of Cape Girardeau, 706 S.W.2d 208, 214 (Mo. banc 1986). With the exception...