Section 31 Remedies for Violation of Voter Approval Requirement
Library | Tax Law 2009 |
Article X, § 23, of the Missouri Constitution, which provides that a taxpayer may bring suit to enforce the provisions of Hancock, is silent as to the scope of relief a court may provide to a taxpayer successfully challenging a local government’s imposition or increase of a tax without voter approval, other than mandating that a successful taxpayer receive costs and reasonable attorney fees. This is to be contrasted with the provisions of article X, § 18(b), of the Missouri Constitution, which provides an explicit formula requiring the state government to refund revenues it collects that exceed the Hancock Amendment’s limit.
In Beatty v. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, 867 S.W.2d 217 (Mo. banc 1993) (Beatty I), discussed in §2.24 above, the Supreme Court of Missouri held that a rate increase imposed by The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) without voter approval violated article X, § 22(a), of the Missouri Constitution. The Court remanded the case to the St. Louis County Circuit Court for a determination of the remedy. On remand, the three taxpayers that initiated the suit sought a refund credit for all of MSD’s ratepayers. The trial court found that the three taxpayers had brought a “representative taxpayer suit” and ordered MSD to refund the amount of the increased rates by crediting the periodic bill of any customer that had paid the increased charge. Beatty v. Metro. St. Louis Sewer Dist., 914 S.W.2d 791, 794 (Mo. banc 1995) (Beatty II).
In Beatty II, the Supreme Court of Missouri reversed the trial court’s ruling that the three taxpayers had brought a “representative taxpayer suit,” and it remanded the case to the trial court for a determination of the amount of credit due, if any, to only the three taxpayers that originally brought the suit. In reaching its conclusion, the Court noted that the plaintiffs did not file the suit as a class action and that the trial court had not followed the Missouri Rules of Civil Procedure mechanism for certification and conduct of class action lawsuits. The Court concluded that “[i]t was error for the trial court to order relief concerning individuals and entities who were not parties to the case.” Id. at 796.
In Ring v. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, 969 S.W.2d 716 (Mo. banc 1998), a case following the Beatty decisions, a group of taxpayers brought a class action suit for a refund of user rates paid to the sewer district under an ordinance previously held unconstitutional. The trial...
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- Section 1 Introduction
- Section 2 Original Hancock Amendment
- Section 3 Defeat of Hancock II
- Section 4 1996 Amendment to ?State Revenue Limit? Provision
- Section 5 General
- Section 6 Defining ?Total State Revenues?
- Section 7 Exclusion of ?Opening Balance?
- Section 8 Exclusion of Voter-Approved Tax Increases
- Section 9 Exclusion of Bond Proceeds and Related Taxes
- Section 10 Defining ?Personal Income of Missouri?
- Section 11 Tax Refund Provision
- Section 12 Remedy for Violation of State Revenue Limit
- Section 13 General
- Section 14 Defining ?New? or ?Increased? Activity
- Section 15 Defining ?Increased Costs?
- Section 16 Maintenance of Funding of a State-Mandated Activity
- Section 17 Form of State Appropriation Required for
- Section 18 Remedy for Violation of State Mandate Provision
- Section 19 General
- Section 20 Defining ?County or Other Political Subdivision?
- Section 21 Roberts v. McNary(All Pecuniary Charges
- Section 22 Restricting Scope of ?Tax, License or Fees?
- Section 23 Keller?True User Fees Exempt
- Section 24 Post-Keller Cases
- Section 25 Exception for Voter-Approved Bond Indebtedness
- Section 26 Defining ?New? or ?Increased? Levy
- Section 27 Rate Rollbacks From a Redefinition of the Base of an Existing ?Tax, License or Fee?
- Section 28 Property Tax Rate Ceilings and Rollbacks
- Section 29 Who Votes
- Section 30 Ballot Proposition
- Section 31 Remedies for Violation of Voter Approval Requirement
- Section 32 Standing
- Section 33 Attorney Fees
- Section 34 Supreme Court Jurisdiction
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